A couple hundred Sudburians gathered outside the Sudbury Arena late Sunday evening to stand in solidarity with those affected by the Humboldt Broncos tragedy.
The vigil took place at the same time as a nationally broadcast vigil in the community of Humboldt, Sask.
On April 6, the team bus for the Broncos, a junior hockey team, was t-boned by a semi truck near Armley, Sask., killing 15 people and injuring 14 others, most of them young hockey players.
During the Sudbury vigil, organizer Brenda Linney read out the names of those killed and injured in the crash.
“I just felt like it was something I had to do,” she said.
“After hearing the shocking news of the collision that took place, I just felt that we should show our support and pay our respect at the same time as the residents in Humboldt were doing the very same thing.”
Many of those in attendance were emergency responders and members of the local hockey community.
Sudbury Wolves owner Dario Zulich said he was “emotionally bothered” by news of the tragedy. “Their team is the exact same age group as our team,” he said.
The Wolves already put safety first by travelling in the right kind of vehicle and staying in hotels for the night during long road trips, Zulich said.
But he said the Broncos crash will have implications with the Sudbury team.
“I immediately called our general manager,” he said. “I said 'You make sure next year our bus driver is going to bring it down a notch. I want the buses to leave an hour earlier if not more.'
“We're going to take no chances. I don't know how this accident happened, but we're going to do our part to make sure this never happens again.”
Teenage hockey players Patrick and Andrew Musico attended the event along with their mom, Joanne Musico.
Patrick, 18, who plays with the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves, said his prayers go out to the families of those affected by the crash.
“You can relate to them so much because you're on the road every weekend, like they are,” he said. “In the last two years, I've been travelling a lot on buses with my team. I'd just hate to see something like that happen.”
Mayor Brian Bigger said the tragedy hit close to home for him because he was a hockey father when his son was younger, and he also used to live out west.
“We did quite a bit of travelling with my son's hockey team,” he said. “When you read about such a tragedy, you think about how many times were we on a bus with the whole team. I mean it's overwhelming.”
