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Three young people are dead and a fourth is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after a single-vehicle crash on a gravel road near Hanover on Tuesday.
All four teens were students at John Diefenbaker Senior School (JDSS) in Hanover and were between the ages of 15 and 17, said West Grey Police Const. Allyson Iles said.
Three of the teens, two boys and a girl, were thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.
A fourth teenager, a boy, was trapped in the car when emergency crews arrived, and had to be cut out. He was taken to Hanover District Hospital before being flown by Ornge air ambulance to London, Iles said.
The incident happened at around noon on Concession Road 2 SDR in the area of Allan Park Road Iles said. A Remembrance Day assembly had just concluded at the school and students were on a lunch break, a parent told CBC News.
‘A heavy day’
“It was definitely a heavy day yesterday for all of our first responders,” Isles said.
The crash comes just six months after another crash that killed four teens and their teacher, all from the nearby community of Walkerton.
“There’s no better word for it than devastating,” Iles said. “It’s always a tragedy when there’s youth that lose their lives, but to be hit so hard back-to-back, that’s definitely something that this community is reeling from today.”
Families and friend groups are coming together to help one another deal with the painful loss, said parent Sheena Sachs, whose children attend JDSS, which has close to 800 students from Grades 7 to 12.
“The community is devastated,” Sachs said. “It’s a pretty profound loss, especially because they’re so young…. I can’t imagine what the parents are going through. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare.”
The Bluewater District School Board said it was sending a trauma response team to provide grief counselling and other supports.
“The impact of this tragedy is far reaching and extends to other school communities in Bluewater,” school board officials said in a statement.
“For many of our students, staff, and families, we recognize that the shock and sadness they are experiencing may be compounded by recent tragedies that have occurred in some of our other schools. Much like those situations, we know that these students had many close connections and will be sadly missed by large networks of peers and staff.”
Hanover Mayor Sue Paterson said the community will come together to support one another.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families and all those affected. We just cannot begin to imagine the depth of their sorrow,” she said.
“We are sharing thoughts of care and strength with them as they navigate in this time of profound loss.”
