Edmonton junior football team helps first responders following Sask. highway crash

(Jason Lorrimer/Edmonton Huskies)

SASKATOON — The Borden, Sask., fire department is thanking an Alberta junior football squad for offering assistance following a highway crash.

Just before 6 p.m. Sunday, Borden Fire and Rescue was dispatched after a motorcycle collided with a deer on Highway 16 about four kilometres east of Borden, according to the Borden fire department.

The department says it helped land a STARS Air Ambulance helicopter on the highway and the crew took the patient to the hospital.

The department is also acknowledging the efforts of the Edmonton Huskies junior football team.

The team was heading home after semi-final matchup against the Saskatoon Hilltops earlier in the day.

Jason Lorrimer, the team’s General Manager, said their bus was travelling back to Edmonton when the driver noticed vehicles pulling over up ahead.

“She looked at me and I said ‘I think we need to stop’ and I asked the trainers ,who were sleeping, I woke a couple of them up and I said ‘hey do you guys mind taking a look at this guy on the side of the road,’ they’re like ‘absolutely,’” Lorrimer said.

Shawna Crozier, an athletic therapist with the team, said they got off the bus to see what they could do to help.

“We just came from the football game so we had our trauma kit with us ... it just happened so there were no responders on the scene so we tried to treat him and do the best we could to stabilize him until further help got there,” Crozier said.

Borden fire department captain Jamie Brandrick said he’s thankful for the help of two Huskies’ trainers who helped stabilize and calm the man down after the crash.

"If we arrive on scene and a person is not hysterical it’s easier for us to work on them and the patient was very cooperative," Brandrick said. "He was face first on the highway and they helped us roll him onto the backboard and they helped put the collar on."

"It just goes to show that their training probably kicked in and they just did what needed to be done."

The patient was transported to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, according to STARS.

A woman, claiming to be the daughter of the man involved in the crash commented on the Borden Fire and Rescue Facebook page thanking everyone who helped get her father to the hospital.  She said her father was going to be okay.