Fourteen people were killed when a bus carrying a Canadian junior hockey team collided with a truck in Saskatchewan province, police said, in one of the worst disasters to strike Canada’s sporting community.
The tragedy sent shock waves through the hockey-loving nation and engulfed the home of the Humboldt Broncos ice hockey team, a small farming town of fewer than 6,000 people, in grief. Fifteen survivors were taken to hospitals, with three of them in critical condition, police said.
The team had been traveling to a playoff game when the accident occurred at about 5:00 p.m. on Friday near the Tisdale area, around 185 miles (300 km) north of Regina.
“Our Broncos family is in shock as we try to come to grips with our incredible loss,” Kevin Garinger, the team’s president, said in a statement.
The players had been on their way to compete in Game 5 of a playoff series against the Nipawin Hawks.
The Hawk’s president, Darren Opp, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that the truck, a semi-trailer, T-boned the players’ bus.
The cause of the crash could not be immediately confirmed, however, and police said nothing about the identity of the dead or condition of the truck driver.
Citing relatives, the Canadian Press reported that the Broncos’ head coach Darcy Haugan and the team’s 20-year-old captain, Logan Schatz, were among those killed.
Many social media users posted Haugan’s photograph alongside messages of shock and sympathy, and the hashtags #prayersforhumboldt and #humboldtstrong.
National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL mourned the passing of those who died “and offers strength and comfort to those injured while traveling to play and be part of a game they loved.”
Reuters