Dauphin community members turn to each other for support following fatal bus crash

Eileen Smelski went to play bingo Friday afternoon at the Dauphin Active Living Centre knowing it was going to be a small crowd.

"I was there to be there," said Smelski, who said she knew a lot of the people who were on a bus that collided with a semi-trailer while crossing Highway 1 at Highway 5 Thursday.

The bus was carrying 25 people, mostly seniors from the Dauphin area, and was headed to a casino near Carberry, Man. Of the people on the bus, the crash left 15 dead and 10 injured.

"It's very sad," she said. "Today bingo was very, very small."

One of those injured was Smelski's husband's cousin, Josephine Stokotelny.

Smelski said Stokotelny was supposed to go to the casino in Carberry with her and her husband the day before, but opted to go on the Thursday casino run with one of her friends instead.

"We said we weren't going to go to that one. It wasn't the right date for us," Smelski said.

A close relative of Stokotelny told CBC News she was being treated at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. 

Smelski said the phone hasn't stopped ringing since news of the collision broke.

"We must have got 40, 50 phone calls, [asking] if we were on that bus. 'Cause everybody knows we've been going on bus trips," she said. 

"For a while there, I picked up the phone and said, 'Yes we're alive, we're at home,' and 'Oh, there's another call waiting.'"

Kim Armstrong, administrator for Dauphin Active Living Centre, said it's important for the community to come together during times like this.

"They will need to discuss their friends, discuss the tragedy, and hopefully that'll help heal," she said during bingo at the centre Friday.

That's why programs at the seniors centre — like bingo — are still happening.

"People can gather here, they can talk, they can be with other people when they might feel alone," Armstrong said.

About 500 people access the centre throughout the year. Its programs mostly cater to seniors.

Armstrong said she talked to some seniors headed to the casino Thursday before they left.

"They were excited to have a nice day away, and then tragedy."

While Armstrong said it's difficult to be at the centre following the crash, she knows it's the right thing to do.

"It's my purpose to be here, so it's kind of a no-brainer."

Mavis Pambrun was also at bingo Friday afternoon. In a close-knit city where "everybody knows everybody," she said the tragedy will likely haunt Dauphin for a while.

"I don't think they're going to forget this," she said. "It's horrible. I feel for the people — the people left behind."

Frances Stewart, a deacon at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Dauphin, agrees.

"I don't think there's going to be many people that aren't personally touched in some way by what happened yesterday," she said.

"It's going to take months and years to get over this."

Stewart is joining other church ministers at a support centre at Trinity Lutheran Church in Dauphin to see how she can help.

"If somebody … needs a listening ear or prayer, I'll be there," she said.

Karin Overgaard said she saw a lot of family members of the deceased heading to the centre.

"It was a very sad event. Just so much grief," she said. "The whole community's in shock right now."

For now, Smelski said she hopes her cousin-in-law gets better and that the community learns to push forward.

"We have to carry on, everybody does," she said.