Native Communities Hit Hard By Highway Fatalities

Native Communities Hit Hard By Highway Fatalities

Monday, June 18, 2007 at 15:47

 

 

Three reserve communities have been affected by this past weekend’s devastation on Saskatchewan roadways.

 

The Beardy’s/Okemasis First Nation is mourning the loss of two young people following a single vehicle rollover on the reserve early yesterday morning.

 

The 18-year-old man and teenaged girl were passengers in a minivan that skidded into a ditch and rolled by the school. Seven others in the van, aged 10 to 18, were taken to hospital with undetermined injuries. All are believed to be from Beardy’s.

 

At around the same time, a 19-year-old Patuanak woman was killed and four others were hurt in another single vehicle rollover.

 

That accident took place on Highway 918, 60 kilometres north of Beauval.

 

The Mounties say the victim was one of three people ejected from the vehicle, and is believed to have been the driver. She died at the scene.

 

RCMP spokesperson Natalie Gray says the accident wasn’t noticed until an RCMP vehicle happened to drive by the area almost three hours later.

 

There were two other fatal vehicle accidents in Saskatchewan over the weekend.

 

A 24-year-old woman said to be from the Shoal Lake Cree Nation was killed early Friday evening after being struck by a vehicle on Highway 35, just north of Wadena.

 

The RCMP aren’t saying much about the circumstances, but there are reports she was run over by a truck and trailer while trying to pull her five-year-old daughter out of the moving vehicle.

 

In the other incident, a 50-year-old man from Edam was killed in a single vehicle rollover on a grid road near Edam early Saturday morning. All five occupants were ejected in that crash.

 

(with files from the Saskatchewan News Network)