Rural Ontario communities are reeling with grief after a deadly crash on Friday that took the lives of five children.
The two-vehicle collision at the intersection of 4th Line and Wellington Road 12, in Mapleton Township, northwest of Kitchener-Waterloo, killed four girls and one boy, all in the same family. Police say they were four, six, eight, 10 and 12 years old.
Katharina Boese was outside feeding her chickens when she heard the crash near her home and a tire landed in her yard.
“I looked through, just like underneath [the brush] through the leaves here and I saw that there was a van laying on a field,” she said, adding the vehicle was lying on its side.
Ontario Provincial Police told CBC News on Saturday that the crash involved an SUV occupied by just the driver and the family’s van that had 10 people inside. Four adults and one infant in the van, as well as the driver of the SUV, sustained serious injuries and were taken to hospital.
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Boese described seeing metal parts scattered across the scene, and she said she saw that the van’s engine had been hurled from the vehicle and sat smoking near the river close by.
When the crash occurred, Boese said she and her husband ran to help, as did other bystanders, and she saw the bodies of some of the children.
“It’s horrible. It’s horrible,” she said, shaking her head.
Boese said she found the infant in the back seat of the van and spoke to it until paramedics arrived.
On Sunday, community members stopped at the intersection, leaving flowers, stuffed animals and wooden crosses to mark the loss.
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Police told CBC News that the family is from Elmira, an Ontario town about 40 kilometres south of the crash scene, between Mapleton and Kitchener-Waterloo.
Sandy Shantz, the mayor of Woolwich Township, where Elmira is located, said she was shocked and saddened by news of the crash.
She said she doesn’t know the names of those involved or whether that information has made the rounds among residents, but she noted that the community was rocked by the heavy loss.
“A tragedy like this, you mourn the loss of five young lives that don’t get to grow up and live a full life,” Shantz said.
“It’s been a sense of the enormity of the tragedy and concern for the family,” the mayor said, adding that many people are worried about the well-being of the family and friends of those involved.
Shantz said Elmira has a population of about 12,000 people, a large number of whom are religious, namely Mennonite. She said the community in the area, made up of people of different denominations and creeds, is a supportive one, particularly when someone is facing times of tragedy.
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“I think the community comes together and surrounds them,” Shantz said. “I think a sense of faith can give them strength to handle it.”
Boese said she believes the family involved to be Mennonite, as she heard someone involved in the crash speaking Low German, a language commonly used by Mennonites. She said she also speaks the language.
Kara Carter, a pastor at Elmira Mennonite Church, said hearts are heavy with grief following the crash.
“When one in our community is suffering, we all suffer,” she said, adding that the community of faith is praying for each other during this time of suffering.
Carter said her congregation gathered on Sunday morning to grieve.
“There was a deep sense of shock and despair — deep, deep grief,” she said. “And we wonder: How can these things happen, and so close to home?”
