here is an accident where 6 people were killed in a cadillac escalade. One wonders what happened.
More than 300 people packed a Roman Catholic church in St. Brieux in central Saskatchewan town for a Friday evening service to remember the woman and four - later five - girls who died in a single-vehicle rollover near Melfort, Sask.
"There is something beautiful about children, even though they are unfinished," said Rev. Manh Nguyen. "They teach us how to live. They are always themselves. We don't know why tragedies happen - why some children suffer so much and die so early."
Four people, including three young girls, died Thursday when this SUV went off the road in Saskatchewan. Photograph by : Global News More pictures: < Prev | Next > Email to a friendPrinter friendly Font:
* * * *Nguyen choked up several times, as did other readers during the mass.
"Let us pray for them, their families, parents, that they may find consolation in our care as a community," Nguyen said.
One woman and three children were pronounced dead at Melfort Union Hospital after medical staff worked feverishly on the victims following Thursday's crash. Two other children were airlifted to Saskatoon, but both were pronounced dead Friday.
The group was returning to St. Brieux from a birthday party in Melfort, Sask., about 40 kilometres away from St. Brieux, where all of the victims lived.
Melfort is a town of 500 people, about 170 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
The accident happened shortly after 3:30 p.m. local time Thursday, when an SUV driven by Charlene Bahan and carrying her two daughters,
10-year-old Aspen and eight-year-old Madison - as well as friends, Jasmine Coquet, 10, Mikayla Piatt, 10, and Meara Hunt, 10 - turned off a primary highway onto a secondary highway headed for home to St. Brieux.Melfort RCMP said the vehicle left the pavement and landed in a water- filled dugout about 45 metres off the road.
The RCMP said the dugout was filled with 1.5 metres of water. RCMP said it appears all the passengers were wearing seatbelts and remained in the vehicle after the accident. A passing motorist managed to get one of the passengers out of the vehicle, while emergency personnel extracted the rest.
Cpl. Darren Harrison lauded the efforts of the passerby, who jumped into the water to pull one of the accident victims from the vehicle.
"That was an act of bravery.
"He risked his life to save theirs," he said.
The man is not from Melfort or St. Brieux. Neither he nor another passerby who stopped to help want to be acknowledged for their efforts.
St. Brieux Mayor Pauline Boyer said Bahan's two girls died. Family and friends confirmed Jasmine and Mikayla also died at the scene.
Meara was pronounced dead late Friday at Saskatoon City Hospital, hospital officials confirmed.
"Everybody is devastated. . . . Everyone feels like they have lost their child," said Ashley Major, 18, who set up a Facebook page for people to post condolences for the families and taught the girls at Bible school. "Our plan is to support the family in any way we can, and if it's leaving a message on Facebook, then that is what it is."
The community was quick to respond with condolences. A six-foot wooden cross marking the site of the tragedy was surrounded by flowers, stuffed animals, messages to the victims' families on Friday night.
"Five pink flowers, one for each of the girls. And one white one for the girls' mom," said a woman as she placed a bouquet of gerbera daisies at the foot of the cross.
Denise Schemenauer and two of her children, Kimberly, 14, and Ryan,
10, also visited the accident scene on Friday. Ryan placed a yellow moose plush toy at the memorial. When the family heard of the crash, "we cried quite a bit," said Denise, who explained they are close friends with the victims.Ryan remembered walking dogs, going swimming and hanging out with the girls.
Kimberly travelled to Saskatoon Thursday, hoping to see the injured girls there, but wasn't able to see them. She has seen Piatt just a few days earlier, she said.
Not far from the memorial, items from the SUV are scattered - various groceries, including a package of processed cheese slices and a bag of hot dog buns. A pair of children's white Crocs shoes with a four leaf clover and cartoon frog charms attached, as well as a small single pink Croc shoe, lie on the ground.
Closer to the edge of a dugout, buried under the overgrowth and near bullrushes, is another, larger purple shoe. A few random strawberries float in water, filling grooves in the mud made from the SUV's tire tracks.
Colette Coquet, 25, said her cousin Jasmine was an "energetic, fun- loving girl" who loved nothing more than "going outdoors." Coquet said the small town of St. Brieux will be forever changed by the accident.
"The town won't be the same for a long time," said Coquet, who was working at the local meat shop co-owned by Jasmine's father, Albert Coquet.
Bahan and her husband, Duane Bahan, own and operate the St. Brieux Hotel.
The cause of the accident has not been determined, RCMP say. Weather and road conditions were good at the time.
Before the evening service began Friday, dozens of vehicles filled the parking lot of the church. Many families held hands as they ascended the stairs. A pair of teenage girls entered, hugging each other as they wept.
While one woman was giving a reading during the service, she had to be assisted by another to complete the passage when she was overcome with emotion.
"Comfort the families suffering this loss. May they feel your love," said one of the readers.
"Bring our community together and give us peace."
© Saskatoon StarPhoenix/Canwest News Service 2008