(Dauphin) Residents of Dauphin, Manitoba, sought solace at church services on Sunday, lighting candles, wiping away tears and offering prayers. They were mourning 15 community members who died in a bus crash that also left 10 seriously injured.
Father Brent Kuzyk of Saint George Ukrainian Orthodox Church dedicated part of his liturgy to the victims of the crash.
Prayers were offered for the dead, their families and rescue workers. Brent Kuzyk also spoke of the overall suffering of the municipality of 8,600 people, located northwest of Winnipeg.
The faithful lit candles and sang hymns. A woman wiped the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief.
The names of those on the bus were also read out.
The Ukrainian Church was among many places of worship in Dauphin that had to deal with the tragedy during their regular Sunday services.
Deaconess Frances Stewart of Saint Paul’s Anglican Church said she planned to offer a minute’s silence for the dead.
Now is the time to offer comfort and compassion as people grieve, she said.
“As Christians, we have this wonderful hope, this wonderful promise of the life to come. But at this point, the important thing is to get through the early days and then be there for the months and years to come,” Ms.me Stewart.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) continued their investigation into Thursday’s accident between a transport truck and a minibus transporting seniors from the Dauphin area to a casino near Carberry, Manitoba, about 190 kilometers .
PHOTO STEVE LAMBERT, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Emergency teams respond to the scene of the accident.
Mounted police said the truck was traveling east on the Trans-Canada Highway when the southbound minibus crossed at an intersection.
As of Friday, investigators had yet to speak with the bus driver, who remained in hospital with the other nine survivors. Shared Care, an organization that provides provincial health services, said in a statement on Sunday that their terms remained the same.
Father Kuzyk said he had spent the past few days in senior citizen complexes praying with people. Some of the victims lived in these facilities.
“Just being able to verbalize what they’re feeling always helps,” he said. Since it’s such a small community, everyone knew someone on that bus or even had family on the bus. »
Gathering together, praying for those who have died, and then burying them is part of the healing process, he said.
“When we start to heal, we gain strength, we start to understand and then we get to prepare our lives for the next stage,” he added.