‘It’s unbelievable’: five killed in highway crash near Swan River

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This article was published 01/10/2023 (751 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Community members in and around Swan River are in shock after five people were killed in a rollover near the Manitoba town Saturday.

“It’s unbelievable. You have one car with five people, and lose everybody at the same time,” said Reeve Bill Gade, who oversees the municipality of Swan Valley West.

The deaths of three men, 25, 36 and 37, and two women, 42 and 46, in the crash Saturday afternoon are affecting families, including some of the victims’ children, as well as friends, neighbours and first responders, Gade added.

“We can’t bring them back. We can’t stop those families from hurting, all we can do is try to be here and somehow, try to be here for them (in the coming weeks), too, because there’s going to be five funerals,” he said. “We have to show compassion.”

At 5 p.m. Saturday, Swan River RCMP and emergency personnel responded to the scene of a single-vehicle crash on Highway 83, about 20 kilometres south of Swan River, RCMP said in a news release Sunday.

Officers discovered an SUV with five occupants was travelling northbound on the highway when it entered the ditch and rolled into a field.

The three men and two women were ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

The passengers were not wearing seat-belts and speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, RCMP said.

“This is an absolute tragedy, another collision with multiple fatalities on our roads,” said staff Sgt. Joe Duncan of the Swan River RCMP. “Our thoughts are with those communities and everyone who has lost a loved one.”

RCMP continue to investigate the crash in an attempt to reconstruct what happened in the lead-up to the incident.

Gade said he called his children to check on them Saturday night after he found out about the crash.

Community members anxiously awaited developments throughout the evening, he said, adding information — including an increasing death toll — was released gradually in the hours after it happened.

Gade said there will be a moment of silence for the victims, all of whom are either from Benito or the surrounding areas, at a meeting of local leaders Monday.

There are no particular concerns about the safety of the stretch of Highway 83 where the rollover happened, he noted.

Manitoba has recorded a high number of fatalities on provincial roadways this year, including the deaths of 17 seniors in June in a collision on the Trans-Canada Highway between a semi-trailer truck and minibus.

A total of 89 people have died in 61 separate collisions on Manitoba roadways so far this year, RCMP confirmed Sunday. In 2022, 60 people died in 57 collisions in the province. Those numbers do not include fatal crashes in the City of Winnipeg.

Speeding, distracted driving and intoxication are contributing to the number of fatal accidents on Manitoba roadways, Mounties told the Free Press this summer.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca