A horrific crash in Alberta that killed 17 teens still looms large in the minds of its survivors, even 65 years later.
The teens were killed on Nov. 29, 1960 when a train hit their school bus as it was travelling from Chipman, Alta., to Lamont, a town located about 65 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
Survivors, their families and people who live in the area gathered on the weekend to remember the tragedy, and to bury a time capsule to be opened 35 years from now — on the 100th anniversary of the crash.
The capsule contains newspaper clips, pictures, letters, teddy bears and an old bus licence plate.
Sixty-five years ago, John Winnick was a teenaged student sitting on the bus when he watched a train carve through the middle.
“I remember flying through the air,” he told CBC News on Sunday.
“I ended up in the back of the school bus, which broke off, and it was like … a punch bowl.”
Winnick said he and other survivors rocked and tipped the section of the bus over so they could climb out of the wreckage. When they did, the scale of the tragedy was immediately clear.
“We started looking around and there were fellow students laying around all over the place,” he said.
The impact had stripped some of them of their jackets, boots and hats. Books and papers were strewn everywhere, he said.
When he got to the hospital, Winnick said parents were asking him if he’d seen their child.
“I guess, in other words, I had to lie because the ones that I’d seen that were deceased, I couldn’t tell their parents that they were gone,” he said.
Alberta communities mark 65 years since 17 teens were killed in crash
“Every time I cross the railway tracks just north of town here … I think about it,” Winnick said.
“When I get close to one of the big locomotives, it scares me. They scare me. There’s something that, it’s a monster.”
Mae Adamyk’s sister, Barbara Pewarchuk, died in the crash.
The girls were very close — born one year and one month apart. Adamyk said they could have been twins.
Adamyk said Barbara was devoted to her studies and helped her with math. Adamyk so happened to have a test the day of the crash.
“I was getting off the bus and going to Chipman and she was staying on the bus and going to Lamont School, and she says, ‘Good luck kid,'” Adamyk told CBC News.
“And I said, ‘Thank you.’ And I’ll never forget her eyes looking at me. That was my last time I saw her.”
Tom Hrehorets, chair of the bus-train memorial committee out of Lamont, told CBC News he was spurred to act after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018.
“I brought it to some people’s attention that we had a tragedy like that in our own backyard, and they didn’t know about it,” he said.
Hrehorets got a committee together and wanted to place a memorial for the dead, so that no one would forget them.
His committee raised enough money for two monuments that have since been erected: one in Chipman and one in Lamont. The time capsule was buried Sunday at the Lamont memorial.
Hrehorets said the bus-train memorial committee is looking ahead, and hoping to raise money for scholarships for high school students in the area.
The impact of 17 deaths left an indelible mark on the community, according to survivors. Even Hrehorets, who was yet to be born when the crash happened, has devoted a part of himself to keeping the victims’ memories alive.
Every year, he goes and puts candles and flowers out and says a prayer.
Adamyk said she now considers Hrehorets a dear friend, and that his involvement in erecting the two memorials means the world.
She said her family suffered in silence for decades after losing her sister. As the years went on, survivors and family members left behind began to open up, little by little.
The newfound openness turned a page in Adamyk’s grief.
“I think that’s when the healing really starts, when you could start talking about it,” she said.
Adamyk’s faith has been a part of her life since she was a child. A memorial service for the crash victims at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Chipman happens every year.
“There’s hurt, there’s grief, there’s hatred, there’s bitterness, there’s unforgiveness,” Adamyk said. “And then finally, there’s the reality. You accept it. And there has to be some forgiveness at the end of why it happened.
“But father said a very beautiful thing [at mass]. He said we’re all going to meet again someday. And I do believe it.”
