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Humboldt Broncos return to ice five months after fatal crash
LOS ANGELES, Sept 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The Humboldt Broncos made an
emotional return to the ice on Wednesday night for their first junior hockey
league game since a bus crash in April that killed 16 people.
There were very few dry eyes at the Elgar Peterson Arena as the Broncos
lost 2-1 to the Nipawin Hawks on a night that paid tribute to the 10 players
killed and 13 injured in the horrific bus-semi trailer collision on a rural
Canadian highway.
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team was forced to rebuild their
team from scratch. There are just two survivors, Brayden Camrud and Derek
Patter, on the current roster and they took part in a ceremonial faceoff on
Wednesday.
Joining them on the ice for the tributes was former goaltender Jacob
Wassermann, who used a wheelchair, and seven other surviving players.
The devastating loss of life was keenly felt across Canada and elsewhere.
National Hockey League teams in Canada and the US helped raise money and
observed moments of silence before regular season games in tribute to the
victims.
In June, Canadian police charged the truck driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu with
16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13
counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily injury.
Sidhu was the only person involved in the crash to escape injury or death.
Canadian police said the semi-trailer was exceeding the speed limit.
The semi-trailer, loaded with heavy bundles of peat moss, was heading west
on the evening of April 6 when it collided at a rural intersection with the
bus which was heading north to a playoff game in the town of Nipawin.
The force of the collision ripped open the bus and hurled its occupants
across the frozen scene.
Of the 16 dead, 10 were hockey players aged 16 to 21. The other six
included coaches, journalists and the bus driver.
BSS/AFP/RY/11:50 hrs