Vigil planned for victims of fatal Manitoba crash after RCMP publicly release names Thursday
Memorial service to take place Thursday night in Dauphin following RCMP news conference
Community leaders in Dauphin are planning a public memorial service to honour the 15 victims of a fatal crash last week as RCMP prepare to identify the victims publicly.
RCMP have scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon where they will provide the names of the 15 people who died after the bus they were on was hit by a semi just north of Carberry, Man., according to a Tuesday news release.
A vigil is set to take place in Dauphin on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Ukrainian Orthodox Auditorium (Eighth Avenue Hall) located at 304 Whitmore Ave. E. to give the community a chance to grieve together. Officials from the city's churches met Tuesday morning to plan it.
"It brings us all together. We all grieve in different ways. In a small community, everybody knows everybody," said Very Rev. Oleg Bodnarski of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Holy Resurrection, one of the church leaders who is helping plan the service.
"It's important for our community that we heal together, that we go through these difficult times and we pray to God and ask for blessings to come upon us."
Bodnarski's church is currently lined with 25 candles — one for each person who was killed or injured in the tragic crash. He said the scale of the loss has been hard to process but he's been trying to support the families impacted however he can.
"We all will be helping these families in different ways."
Ten people who were injured in the crash remained in hospital as of Tuesday morning, including five who are receiving critical care, according to a statement from Shared Health.
Victims to be identified Thursday
The RCMP's Thursday news conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT. Premier Heather Stefanson and Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak will attend.
Most of the victims of the crash were seniors from in and around the southwestern Manitoba city of Dauphin — which has a population of about 8,000 — on their way to the Sand Hills Casino near Carberry.
RCMP have not yet released the names of those killed, as they had not been identified individually due to the severity of the crash.
Because of this, Dauphin's city council has had to carefully weigh how to respond, said Bosiak. Councillors met Monday and decided it would be best to hold a memorial after the victims have been publicly identified by RCMP, the mayor said.
"We would rather go into this with the full knowledge and understanding the impacts to all of those people involved," he said.
"So there's a whole mix of things that we're trying to handle, following those three key fundamentals of consideration, compassion and respect."
The crash came just months after another in western Manitoba that killed four Dauphin-area teens, near the western Manitoba community of Gilbert Plains.
"It just takes the wind out of you. You start thinking, how much hurt can we take in this area?" said Stephen Jaddock, superintendent of Mountain View School Division, which oversees schools in Dauphin and the surrounding area.
WATCH | Dauphin leaders work to support the community:
The division has deployed school psychologists and social workers to the area's schools to help people cope, Jaddock said.
"It's somebody's baba, it's somebody's auntie, it's somebody's godmother — so the repercussions are wide," he said.
A support line has been set up for families. The number is 1-888-379-7699.
Debriefing for witnesses
A debriefing was also set for Tuesday in Carberry for first responders and people who witnessed last week's bus crash. It's organized by Project Resilience 911, which offers mental health support to first responders.
Project chair Const. Amanda Conway says it's critical to provide proper mental health supports to people who were at the scene.
Conway, a Brandon Police Service constable and a social worker, said until recently, many first responders would not seek help.
"It's shifting. We're seeing more people open to the fact that we do see traumatic things and that most of what we deal with are people in crisis," she said on CBC's Up to Speed.
"We're gaining momentum, definitely, and also getting more acceptance around mental health and reaching out when we need to."
Conway said her group is considering a debrief for everyone in the community at a later date.
LISTEN | Project Resilience 911 is offering mental health help for witnesses of the bus crash near Carberry:
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With files from Alana Cole, Faith Fundal and Wendy Parker