Most of us have probably already realized the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus crash is one of those incidents that will always affect us deeply and remain prominent in our memory banks.
April 6, 2018 is a date that will go down in the annals of history for the impact this tragedy had on so many people.
We’re all going to remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the awful news.
There’s only a certain number of events that impact us so profoundly during our lifetimes and this is clearly one of them.
The first one I can remember that falls into this category was the assassination of U.S. president John Kennedy in 1963. I was just four years old and watching my morning cartoons on TV when the program was interrupted for a special news report.
I didn’t know what all the fuss was about, but old enough to eventually figure out that something very alarming had just occurred.
There’s always flashes of other things that come to mind, but the next event of huge significance that stands out immediately to me was Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969. This fortunately didn’t fall into the same horrific classification, but was more of an unbelievable science fiction event that we never thought would happen.
The first Canada-Russia hockey series of 1972 made a huge impact at the time. Playing these mysterious figures from some weird foreign land was another out-of-this-world experience for everyone.
Canada was going to pulverize the Russians, we all believed, and it certainly looked that way with two goals in the first minute of the opening game. The only trouble is the Russians just weren’t warmed up and then asserted themselves for a shocking 7-3 victory in Montreal.
Canada went on to win the series, of course, on Paul Henderson’s historic goal, but it couldn’t have been any closer. I was at school and we were glued to the broadcasts of the games from Russia on the radio (no TV at school then, kids), biting our nails and hoping to prevail.
That series unified the nation like never before.
Back to the horrific side of world events, 9-11 of 2001, will stand out as something we just couldn’t fathom happening. The terror attacks that resulted in planes crashing into the World Trade Centre buildings and the nightmare that ensued was just so shocking, it seemed unreal.
I was driving to work early on a Tuesday morning when I heard that news and seeing the reports on TV that night had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief.
Fast forward to the Humboldt crash and the senseless deaths of so many in that bus just makes you shake your head. The investigation is surely done even though few exact details are being released about what actually happened from the truck driver’s standpoint.
Whatever his alleged actions were, he’ll probably have to make like Salman Rushdie and go into hiding. As people’s grief turns to anger, the blame game is going to continually heat up.
It just goes to prove that a vehicle can just as easily be a weapon of mass destruction as an assault rifle. Too many of us forget that when we get behind the wheel.
It would actually have been better, if I can use that term, if this had just been an accident that resulted from a mechanical failure or been caused because of horrible weather conditions.
But the day was clear and the intersection marked with a stop sign so you can always draw your own conclusions.
None of these young people and coaches needed to die in such a terrible manner. We will always remember the unfortunate victims and reserve sympathy for their families, even though most of us will never know any of them, for going through such pain and suffering.
Humboldt is a great little hockey town with a scar that we expect can never be fully healed, but we’re with those folks all the way and hope they can move forward toward a brighter future with great memories of their loved ones in mind.
(Don Bodger is the editor of the Chemainus Valley Courier).