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‘Unimaginable loss’: Sask. community mourning after family of 3 killed in highway crash

Jan 5, 2017 | 4:36 PM

A community is in mourning after a family of three died in a two-vehicle crash outside Saskatoon Wednesday morning.

Rescue crews were called to Highway 5 west of the Highway 2 junction near St. Denis after a man, woman and child died when their SUV collided with a semi-truck.

The family was from the village of Meacham, located around 69 kilometres east of Saskatoon.

Meacham Mayor Marion Carlson sent a statement to 650 CKOM Thursday:

“Our sincere condolences to the Savage and Kirkwood families, who have sustained the most unimaginable loss.

The void of losing this beautiful young family will never be filled. David, Amanda and Tyson will be forever in our hearts.”

Photos of the family on Facebook show a newly married couple in 2014 and a smiling baby boy with his mother in June 2016.

FIRST RESPONDERS COPING WITH THE TRAGEDY

Derek Dagenais with Humboldt and District Ambulance said fatal crashes are difficult for all first responders.

The collision on Highway 5 took crews hours to investigate and clear.

“We try our best internally to have discussions about these things. In a lot of cases that are as major as this one, we do institute things like critical incident stress debriefing,” Dagenais said.

“A lot times its multiple incidents that our paramedics, for example, see and they start to take their toll after a while. It’s not always one single incident. But that can happen as well.”

Dagenais said situations like these are typically followed by a mental and emotional debriefing to make sure everyone is doing okay.

“You can’t ask the question once, ‘are you okay?’ and walk away from it. It requires follow up and a lot of discussion just to ensure everybody is handling it well,” Dagenais added.

 

Email ccarr@ckom.com

Twitter @ChrisCarr15