This is my final hide in the TRAIL OF TEARS series. No explanation needed. I understand that there will be a 'more permanent' memorial established at Ground Zero but five years later, this hasn't happened. If and when that happens, I will look at replacing this cache accordingly. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit the site if you can. Having driven that highway countless times in my life, I knew exactly WHERE it was that the media was referring to....'the ARMLEY CORNER'.....on HWY 35, between the towns of Tisdale and Nipawin. The team members made it to TISDALE and were fortunately unaware of what was about to happen just miles down the road.... I have stopped at the site numerous times, it never fails to affect me...and all others who stop, be it just once or regularly. Words cannot describe the shock, the horror, the anger, the pain and the agony experienced by so many people....
The cache is magnetic, it is NOT the green container located at the foot of the cross. Please be respectful at the site and drive away or wait if other people are there, do not interrupt their visitation, please.
SOURCE:WIKIPEDIA
On April 6, 2018, sixteen people were killed and thirteen were injured when a northbound coach bus struck a westbound semi-trailer truck near Armley, Saskatchewan, Canada. The driver of the semi-truck had failed to yield at a flashing stop sign at the intersection of Highways 35 and 335. The semi-trailer was travelling at a speed of approximately 100 km/h (62 mph). Most of the deceased and injured were players from the Humboldt Broncos, a junior ice hockey team from Humboldt, Saskatchewan, which plays in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL).
On July 6, 2018, the RCMP charged 29-year-old Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the driver of the semi-truck, 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. In early 2019, Sidhu pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Sidhu, an immigrant from India, plans to appeal deportation from Canada if he is granted parole.
The crash prompted condolences from public figures and celebrities, along with vigils and tributes such as people leaving hockey sticks outside their doors. A GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign set a national record by raising more than $15,000,000. This was the deadliest road accident in Canada since the 1997 Les Éboulements bus accident, which killed 44 people
Background
Saskatchewan Highways 35 and 335 meet at a right-angle intersection near the village of Armley in the Rural Municipality of Connaught, Saskatchewan. The intersection is commonly known as "Armley Corner". Traffic on Highway 35, running north–south, has the right of way at the intersection and a speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph).Traffic on Highway 335, both westbound and eastbound, has a speed limit of 100 km/h dropping to 60 km/h (37 mph) at the intersection, which has stop signs with flashing red lights. The signal lights were installed after a fatal traffic collision at the same intersection in 1997, in which six members of a family from British Columbia were killed.Six memorial crosses in the intersection's southeast corner commemorate those deaths.[The coroner's report on the 1997 accident suggested "additional warning device approaching Highway 35 from the west, which could include rumble strips", but this was not implemented since the last crash occurred in 1988.
Crash
According to the RCMP collision report, the coach bus carrying the team and the semi-trailer truck collided at the intersection of Highways 35 and 335 near Armley at about 5:00 p.m. CST. Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was travelling westbound on Highway 335 in a transport truck carrying two trailers loaded with peat moss, between 86 and 96 km/h. A bus carrying 29 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team was travelling northbound on Highway 35 around 96–107 km/h. At the intersection of Highways 35 and 335, near Armley, Highway 335 traffic faces a stop sign, which is "oversized" at 1.2 metres across, attached to a post with a blinking red light immediately above it, and placed 19 metres ahead of the intersection. Sidhu failed to heed the stop sign, while the Broncos' bus was to be given the right-of-way. Sidhu's truck was completely blocking the intersection when the Broncos' bus slammed into the lead trailer.
It was a clear, sunny day and nothing obscured Sidhu's view of the stop sign, according to the agreed statement of facts. The sun was not in his eyes, the road was not affected by any inclement weather, and the intersection was clearly visible before the collision. Sidhu also passed signs indicating that an intersection with a stop sign was ahead.
Sidhu was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time, and was not distracted by a cellphone. Sidhu stated that he was distracted by a tarp that had come loose. Glen Doerksen, the Broncos' bus driver, applied his brakes 24 metres before the intersection, but was unable to avoid the collision. The bus struck the truck's front trailer in a T-bone collision. The bus sustained massive damage, particularly at the front. The driver and 13 passengers were killed immediately. Two others died of their injuries in hospital.
One of the survivors described how the bus broadsided the semi-trailer truck, which was consistent with the photographic account of the incident. A father of one of the victims stated that they "pulled up and saw the front of the bus was gone", and that the normal seating plan on the bus would have been rookies in the front, veterans in the back. Survivor Kaleb Dahlgren recounted later that the bus had the 18-year-olds up front, 19-year-olds in the middle, and the 20-year-olds in the back. The force of the impact caused both vehicles to come to rest off the highway in the northwest corner, lying on their sides. According to the RCMP, the bus carried 29 people, including the driver. Fourteen died initially and 15 suffered injuries (three of them critically) Two of the critically injured later died in the hospital.
As part of the emergency response to the accident, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS) dispatched three helicopters to assist with transporting victims. Several of the injured were taken to the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, about 250 km (160 mi) southwest of the accident.The truck driver was not injured in the crash. Photos show the semi-trailer's load of peat moss was strewn over the ground.
The team chaplain Sean Brandow arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after the collision and attempted to offer prayers and aid. Officers directed families of the team towards the Nipawin Apostolic Church, where family and friends gathered to wait. One father recounted: "You're at the church and most of the families are there. All the veterans' parents start getting phone calls, we got your boy, come to the hospital. You get a little deeper and at the end of the night it's mostly the rookies parents there ... And then of course the police had the conversation with us."