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91ƵIt91Ƶs past a nightmare:91Ƶ Father of Humboldt crash survivor recalls carnage

A bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team crashed into a truck en route to Nipawin for a game Friday night killing 15

Last Friday, Myles Shumlanski sped down the highway to the scene of a nightmare.

He stopped there again Tuesday, looking through snow for wallets, cellphones and other belongings of the 15 people who died.

91ƵIt91Ƶs starting to melt,91Ƶ he told The Canadian Press.

91ƵI91Ƶm sure some parents would really appreciate something returned.91Ƶ

Related: A look at the victims of the Humboldt team bus crash

For Shumlanski, the rural intersection he passes each day on the way to his home in northeastern Saskatchewan will never be the same.

He was one of the first to arrive after a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team collided with a semi truck about 20 kilometres north of Tisdale. The team was on its way to a playoff game in nearby Nipawin.

Shumlanski91Ƶs 20-year-old son, Nick, a forward who had recently joined the Broncos, was on the bus.

He was miraculously able to walk away from the wreckage, grab a phone lying in the debris and call home.

His parents, sitting in their house along the highway just a kilometre away, had seen the bus go by.

91ƵYou know, I kind of heard something. But we91Ƶve got dogs so we really never paid attention,91Ƶ said Shumlanski. 91ƵAll of a sudden, a phone call. It was him. They were in an accident.91Ƶ

He said he jumped in his vehicle and headed down the road. It was a devastating site.

91ƵI don91Ƶt know how to explain it even as a nightmare, because it91Ƶs past a nightmare,91Ƶ said Shumlanski.

91ƵWhen you come up you see that bus and you didn91Ƶt know it was a bus 91Ƶ the roof was beside the bus. It was torn off.

91ƵSome people thought it was just part of the trailer before they started seeing that carnage.91Ƶ

Related: Humboldt bus crash investigation will take months: experts

Shumlanski said he helped those he could.

91ƵI looked under the roof. The boys under there were still alive so I put blankets over them.91Ƶ

Shumlanski said his shaken son waited in the family91Ƶs vehicle.

91ƵI had to run back to give him a hug because you just knew, 91ƵOh my God you91Ƶre a fortunate guy.91Ƶ91Ƶ

Most of the debris has been removed since police reopened the intersection on Sunday. A large tarp remained over some of the muddy frozen ground where the bus landed.

A memorial was set up 91Ƶ two crosses made of hockey sticks with the words 91ƵHumboldt Strong91Ƶ written on them, with stuffed animals, hundreds of bouquets of flowers and messages of condolences as well as a small wooden altar covered in flowers and candles.

91ƵApril 6, 2018. For those who were lost. For those that survived.91Ƶ

Lorrie White and his father Norman, who live on farms across the road from the crash came to pay their respects.

91ƵDad kind of wanted to come and have a look and I was here last night just to show respect for the ones that lost their lives here. It91Ƶs terrible,91Ƶ said Lorrie.

He said he heard the collision.

91ƵI thought it was maybe the train because the train had just been here hooking up cars and when they do that it bangs, you know? But my wife said, 91ƵNo. I think that was a different bang.91Ƶ91Ƶ

Shumlanski said Nick is strong and doing okay despite what he has gone through and visits the hospital every day. A dozen of the 14 injured are still being treated for various injuries.

91ƵI think his counselling is staying at the hospitals with his buddies and talking to his hockey friends. The other night he was going to the hospital. It was a little late. I said are you sure you want to go. He said those boys need to see a survivor and so do their parents,91Ƶ he said.

RCMP said they continue to investigate the cause of the crash, but Myles Shumlanski said he can91Ƶt help but be angry at the truck driver, who wasn91Ƶt injured.

91ƵAn accident of this magnitude shouldn91Ƶt have happened. But it happened and there91Ƶs nothing we can do about it now,91Ƶ he said.

91ƵOf course I91Ƶm angry, because there91Ƶs a stop sign. What happened? Why would this happen?91Ƶ

Related: 91ƵHeroes to many:91Ƶ Support offered to Humboldt students after bus crash kills 15

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

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11401139_web1_JOHV301468279
Myles Shumlanski looks around a makeshift memorial at the intersection of a fatal bus crash near Tisdale, Sask., Tuesday, April, 10, 2018. Shumlanski91Ƶs son Nick was one of the survivors of a fatal bus crash.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
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