Sask. memorial honouring 1980 CP rail crew bus crash expands on Highway 16

A memorial in southwest Saskatchewan is adding new ways to tell the story of the 1980 crash that killed 22 people. Damian Smith has more.

As trains and vehicles pass by a monument that stands beside the Trans-Canada Highway west of Swift Current, a plaque bears the names of 22 men killed and eight survivors in one of the deadliest crashes in Canadian history.

On May 28, 1980, a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) crew, known as the ‘Prairie Region Steel Gang’ was riding in a school bus, when it crashed just outside of Webb, Sask.

A new plaque has been added to the memorial in hopes of providing more of the history of what happened. Changes were also made to some of the names that were misspelled.

“Having this piece here, I do believe that people are going to come here, stop, understand the story better, and share the story at the next stop, at family dinners,” said Peter Hoag, a former member of the steel gang from 1975-1977.

“I think it’ll pique their curiosity to go do a little bit of research and find out what really happened to hear the bigger story.”

Webb resident Brent Cammer remembers that day, being the first one to drive a firetruck to the scene. He found out when he was picking up his mail at the post office, when someone walked in to call the police.

“You could see the smoke half a mile in the air; you knew that it was bad,” he said. “When we got there, everybody just went to work. In southwest Saskatchewan, everybody sticks together and they come whenever you need help and everybody came that day.”

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At the time, the CPR Prairie Region Steel Gang was replacing old rail with new from Swift Current to Thunder Bay, Ont.

The bus of 30 workers collided with another vehicle, was flipped onto its side and was struck by a tanker truck with liquid asphalt, engulfing a fire on the bus.

The fire resulted in the loss of 22 young men, with eight survivors.

“We all fought the fire and finally got it out and realized that there was a terrific amount of death, but thank God there were some people who lived through it,” Cammer said.

One of those survivors is Derald Flamand, who was 18 at the time of the crash.

“It changed my life, I’ll put it that way. I’m here today at this memorial site, as part of my personal closure. It’s a little emotional, obviously, because I lost a lot of friends and relatives” he said. “It’s great to see the turnout here today, it’s like support for me and part of my personal healing process.”

He lost his two cousins, Kevin Tanner, 21 and Walter Tanner, 20.

Flamand said that he had to heal his neck and back after they were fractured.

“I’m just grateful that I was able to survive and be able to live this long because many people don’t have the chance because of accidents or alcohol abuse, and I ended up surviving both of those things,” he said.

Flamand is now a retired iron worker and will be celebrating his 65th birthday this August.

Of the 22 lives lost, 12 of them were from Newfoundland and Labrador, nine from Manitoba, and one from Ontario.