Two children are still in hospital following a devastating crash south of Caledonia.
The crash killed two girls from a First Nations community, and left six others with injuries after the van they were in collided head on with another vehcile on Highway 6 between Caledonia and Hagersville.
“Three of the children injured in the van accident on March 29 have been released from hospital into the care of their families. Two children remain in the pediatric intensive care unit,” Deanna Dunham wrote in an emailed statement.
“We kindly ask that you respect the privacy of the families affected by this tragedy as they being their long healing journey. We kindly ask that the privacy of the families, and other members of our community be respected.”
Two girls, aged 12 and 14, were killed Wednesday night when the van they were riding in was hit head-on by a car that had crossed the centre line of the darkened two lane highway at about 9 p.m.
The 21-year-old man driving the car was also killed. He was a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River.
The girls were part of a two-van, 15-person caravan that had been returning from a night of laser tag in Hamilton. The girls were in the lead van with five other young people and a 27-year-old driver. All are members of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. The surviving passengers are in hospital with serious injuries.
"We've suffered a tragic event in our community," Chief R. Stacey Laforme of Mississaugas of the New Credit said Thursday. "We're so closely knit that all our members are suffering."
An elementary school on the Ohsweken reserve where at least some of the children were students has been closed for the day and it may be again on Friday. Counsellors have been made available at an adjacent community centre where elders are also smudging.
Laforme talked about the need to take time to sit together and figure out how the nation can move forward from tragedy.
"The close-knitness of the community and the nation is something we're very proud of and something we strive to maintain. When we lose children, people always think of your children, my children, her children or his children, but they're all our children."
A GoFund Me account has been established in support of the victim's families.
Andrew Collins
Kara, who lives alongside the Hwy 6 crash site says the impact sounded like a bomb going off. She and her husband dialled 911 and ran outside.
"Right off the hop you could hear the children screaming, it was really awful," Kara told reporters Thursday.
She says drivers on Hwy 6 started stopping their vehicles and running to help. Kara says a tow truck driver ran to the car first. Judging the man inside to already be dead, he and other passersby turned their attention to the overturned van.
While Kara says two people were extricated from the van fairly quickly, Kara says others were trapped inside the mangled vehicle for about two hours.
OPP Const. Rod LeClair tells NEWSTALK 1010 investigators don't yet know why the man crossed into oncoming traffic, but they will be considering a variety of factors including speed, alcohol and road conditions.
Ken Hewitt, the mayor of Haldimand County tells Moore in the Morning there have been efforts to expand the busy thoroughfare.
"We've had head-on collisions. It's just a situation that we continue to try to bring to the attention of the province .