Premier inducts 134 first responders at catastrophic bus crash into Order of Buffalo Hunt

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This article was published 28/10/2024 (319 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Wab Kinew awarded one of Manitoba’s highest honours Monday to recognize the bravery and courage of first responders following the highway collision that claimed the lives of 17 seniors from Dauphin 16 months ago.

“This is a room full of heroes,” Kinew said during an Order of the Buffalo Hunt ceremony at the Legislative Building. “What you did that day represents the best of this province.”

A total of 134 first responders from the Carberry North Cypress-Langford Fire Department, Brandon Fire and Emergency Services, Neepawa Volunteer Fire Department, Shared Health emergency response services, STARS air ambulance and Manitoba RCMP, along with provincial call-takers and dispatchers were inducted into the order.

Pilots and medical staff who were on board two Saskatchewan government fixed-wing air ambulance (Lifeguard) flights that responded and transported patients from Brandon to Winnipeg were also included.

“This was a team effort,” the premier said, noting it was the first time he’d inducted anyone into the order. “The province of Manitoba owes you a tremendous debt of gratitude.”

Chief Yves Guillas of the Neepawa Volunteer Fire Department told reporters he recalled first hearing of the June 15, 2023 crash, not realizing how bad it would turn out to be.

“We had no idea. We heard ‘bus’ — that’s all we heard,” Guillas said.

“We get there and it was worse than we thought it could be … it was massive.”

The bus, with 25 people aboard, was taking the seniors on a day trip to Sand Hills Casino just outside Carberry, about 200 kilometres south of Dauphin.

The bus was travelling on Highway 5, left the intersection controlled by a stop sign, and was hit by a transport truck — which had the right of way — while attempting to cross the Trans-Canada.

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Responders arrived at a chaotic scene. Many of the dead and injured had been thrown from the bus, which had burst into flames. Debris was strewn in all directions and crews worked to find survivors and get them to hospital by air and ambulance.

The outreach and offers of support to first responders dealing with the aftermath has been “excellent,” Guillas said, adding Monday’s honour is a morale boost for all.

“We had to, as a province, find a way to acknowledge the acts of valour that they showed on that day but to also find a way to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got your back as you go just through the normal human action of seeing such a traumatic event,’” Kinew said.

— with files from The Canadian Press

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.