Silver Blades skater recalls how 'bus turned and flipped over'
Members of skating club still recovering, emotionally and physically, from Feb. 5 incident
It's now been 11 days since a bus carrying members of Corner Brook's Silver Blades skating club left the road and turned on its side near Grand Falls-Windsor, and many of those involved are still recovering — both physically and emotionally — from the incident.
Amber Murrin, 16, told the CBC that club members are rallying around each other for support.
They assembled for a pizza party last week and filled out some thank-you cards for the people of Grand Falls-Windsor, and some skaters took part in the provincial championships in Mount Pearl this past weekend.
"We're all here for each other and anything that anyone needs, we all know that we can get through this together," said Murrin.
The accident occurred during poor weather conditions on the night of Feb. 5 as club members were making their way to Clarenville for the provincial synchronized skating championships.
More than 50 members of the club had boarded the DRL motorcoach a day earlier than planned, hoping to get ahead of an approaching storm.
The skaters ranged in age from 5 to 50.
Murrin described what happened at the moment of the accident, which sent chills throughout the province's sporting community.
"The bus kind of just shook a lot. Turns out, we were going down the highway, and we actually did a 180 and ended up looking the other way, and then the bus turned and flipped over," Murrin recalled.
"It was really frightening. Like, we didn't know what was going on. We thought we were just turning off into Grand Falls at first, but then everyone started looking at each other, because we didn't know what was really going on. We were all scared."
Kicked open emergency door
Murrin said she remained calm during the chaos that followed.
"I was trying to be there for my friends, because they were a bit more shook up," she said.
"It was kind of just a moment of shock. I was on the side of the bus that actually flipped on, but I was lucky because where I was too, the glass didn't break, whereas it broke everywhere else."
Murrin and one of her friends kicked open the emergency door so people could evacuate the toppled bus.
She then went to the front of the bus, "where most of the impact was," to assist others.
As the drama began to set in, Amber said it felt like a dream.
"It was really frightening."
Many of the skaters suffered injuries; none were considered serious.
"Most of us on the bus, we were just a bit beaten up. But like, we're all dealing with the injuries in our own way."
Back on the ice
Murrin said club members felt the need to say thanks to everyone in Grand Falls-Windsor who came to their assistance, including the fire department, police, hospital staff and others.
"The whole community was so helpful that night," said Murrin, who competed this past weekend in Mount Pearl.
She said some members of the club were unable to skate because of their injuries, or because they just weren't mentally prepared to resume competition.
"Most of them didn't want to travel on the highways. So it was weird not having everyone around," she said.
The club won plenty of medals, and many recorded personal best performances.
"It felt good just to go out and try to get back to normal life," she said.
With files from Jen White