Lone survivor in deadly collision in western Manitoba phoned mom for help from crash wreckage
CBC
Hanna Yurkiw left her home near Dauphin, Man. after 9 p.m. on March 29 to go for a drive with friends. Around two hours later she phoned her mom, trapped in a car that was flattened beneath the tires of a semitrailer on a rural highway following a horrific collision.
The 15-year-old was a passenger in the car with four other teenagers. She's the only one who survived.
"She somehow had her phone and she was calling and when I talked to her she said: "Mommy, I need you. Please come and get me," Tanya Yurkiw, Hanna's mom, said during a phone call from Children's Hospital in Winnipeg, where her daughter was airlifted due to her extensive injuries.
The car, which had five occupants, went through a stop sign and collided with a semitrailer at the intersection of Provincial Road 274 and Highway 5 in Gilbert Plains, Man. at around 10:50 p.m., RCMP said in a news release Thursday.
Chris Swintak, 18, of Dauphin and Alexandra Watt, 18, originally of Carberry, Man. were among those killed. Two 17-year-old boys from the Dauphin area were also killed in the crash, according to police. The 30-year-old driver of the semi from Saskatoon wasn't hurt.
Tanya said Hanna suffered a broken femur, lacerations on her liver, kidney and spleen, a punctured lung and seven broken ribs.
Doctors determined she needed immediate surgery on her leg, which Hanna had on Thursday.
"She's not out of the woods," Tanya said. "We're just hopeful that she's going to be OK."
"She's fighting. She's a fighter. She's more brave than she'll ever know."
Hanna doesn't know she's the lone survivor, her mom said.
"She knows nothing of the outcome," Tanya said. "My husband and I feel it's not the right time with her being on meds and everything. We just don't feel it's the right time right now. There's never going to be a good time to tell her."
Tanya and her husband Darcy have been staying by their daughter's side ever since. Tanya said while their focus is in Winnipeg with Hanna, their hearts are back at home and with the families of the teenagers who died.
"I can't imagine the feeling of not being able to take their children home," Tanya said, as her voice trembled over the phone. "It's just a nightmare."
The crash happened during spring break. The day of the collision, Tanya said Hanna had worked a shift with Chris Swintak, one of the teens killed in the crash, at a grocery store in Dauphin.
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