U.S. President Donald Trump expressed sympathy Saturday for the victims and survivors of a crash involving a bus carrying a Canadian junior hockey team that killed 15 people late Friday.
The Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League were on their way to the town of Nipawin for a playoff game when their bus collided with a tractor-trailer about 5 p.m. on a highway about 30 kilometers north of Tisdale, in northeastern Saskatchewan.
A semi-trailer slammed into a bus carrying a youth hockey team in western Canada, killing 15 people and injuring 14 in a catastrophic collision that a doctor compared to an airstrike and left the vehicles obliterated in the snow. The crash sent shockwaves through the team’s small hometown and a country united by the national sport.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said 14 other people had been injured, three of them critically.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he could not imagine what the parents of the players were going through. “My heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy,” he said.
National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said Saturday, “Our thoughts are with the players, families, coaches, team management and all those throughout the community that have been affected by the tragedy.”
Bettman added, “The NHL mourns the passing of those who perished and offers strength and comfort to those injured while traveling to play and be part of a game they love.”
Hockey Canada, the country’s national governing body of ice hockey, expressed its sadness on Twitter:
The team had been scheduled to play the Nipawin Hawks on Friday night. “Tonight’s game is canceled,” the Hawks said on Facebook.
The Broncos consisted of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest age 16 and the oldest 20.
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