4 teens dead, 1 seriously hurt after crash in western Manitoba: RCMP
Teens' car crashed into semi-trailer after failing to stop at stop sign, Mounties say
Four teens are dead and one is seriously injured after the car they were in blew a stop sign and crashed into a semi-trailer in western Manitoba on Wednesday night, RCMP say.
Two 17-year-old boys and the 18-year-old man driving the car were pronounced dead at the scene. All were from the Dauphin, Man., area, according to police. An 18-year-old woman from Carberry, Man., was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A 15-year-old girl from the rural municipality of Dauphin was taken with serious injuries to hospital, where she remains, RCMP said in a Thursday news release.
Mounties said they got numerous calls about the crash at the junction of Highway 5 and Provincial Road 274 near the western Manitoba community of Gilbert Plains — about 275 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
The initial investigation determined the teens' car was going north on Provincial Road 274 into Gilbert Plains when it failed to stop at a stop sign and hit the trailer part of the semi, which was going east on Highway 5.
The 30-year-old Saskatoon man driving the semi was not physically injured, RCMP said.
Mounties said their investigation into the crash continues with the help of an RCMP forensic collision reconstructionist.
'It's going to take some healing'
James Manchur, reeve of the municipality of Gilbert Plains, said the tragedy will affect many across the community of roughly 1,400 people.
"I think it's quite a shock," he said. "And in a community like this, everybody knows everybody — so it does impact everybody.
"It's going to be tough: tough on the parents, tough on the relatives, tough on the first responders."
The area's Mountain View School Division said in a statement on Thursday that three of the teens who died were students there, as is the girl in hospital, who the division said is in critical condition.
Superintendent Stephen Jaddock said two of the deceased attended Gilbert Plains Collegiate and one attended Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School.
"Some of them were in their graduating year and looking forward to to graduating, finishing school and a career, and look to what the future would bring and that's been cut short," he said.
Jaddock said Gilbert Plains is a very small school, with 62 students attending Grades 9-12.
"It's a small, rural high school, where everyone is deeply connected," he said.
The division said in response to the crash, it opened the school on Thursday and will do the same on Friday so people in the community can access support, including critical response members from the division and the community.
Manchur said there's nothing unusual about the intersection where the teens died, and he rarely sees issues happen there.
While the area has had major fires and other accidents happen over the years, Manchur, a lifelong Gilbert Plains resident, said he can't think of anything quite like the tragic crash happening in the community's history.
"I can't recall to my memory something like this particular incident, but it may have happened in the past," he said.
"It's going to take some healing to cope and deal with it."
With files from Bartley Kives