Two people have died in a motor vehicle crash just south of Debden.
The Big River RCMP received a report of a three-vehicle collision at about 9 p.m. Sunday. They responded to the scene of the accident, on Highway 55 about 8 kilometres south of Debden.
STARS air ambulance were dispatched to the scene, as were paramedics and the Debden Fire Department. But when officers arrived, they found that a Prince Albert man and a woman from the Big River First Nation had already died from their injuries. Both victims were travelling in the same vehicle, heading southbound.
Angela McAdam, a Prince Albert woman on her way back to town, said she was among those who struggled to save those injured in the accident.
“I saw a black truck in the ditch,” she told the Herald in a Facebook conversation. “I stopped and got out of my truck and ran to the truck. I was so scared to look.”
She also remembers seeing a silver SUV and a red van. She saw a group of other rescuers trying to pull a man out of one of the vehicles.
“There were parts everywhere,” she said. “When they finally got him out a guy started chest compressions right away.”
McAdam keeps a mini first-aid kit in her truck. She rushed it over and got out a breather mask. She held the man’s neck and told him to “come back, just breathe.”
Eventually, though, they realized their efforts were becoming hopeless.
“When we were about five minutes into it, the breather did nothing and blood was coming out of his mouth,” she said. “When I knew there was nothing more we could do I got up and returned to my truck.”
McAdam said she felt like she was on autopilot throughout the experience, which she called “intense” and “very real.”
“I think I’m still in a bit of shock,” she said. “It’s very sad.”
Three occupants from the two other vehicles sustained minor injuries, police reported. One required hospitalization.
The RCMP said that they continue to investigate the cause of the accident, with the help of a traffic reconstructionist and the Saskatchewan Coroner’s Office.
