A Highway to Healing walk this weekend saw people come out to support Saskatchewan families grieving after two fatal crashes within hours of each other on Highway 4 earlier this month. On July 5, a 48-year-old woman, and two boys aged 5 and 6 died in a collision between a truck and a van south of Cochin, just north of North Battleford. They were all from Flying Dust First Nation.
Less than three hours later a collision between a motorhome and SUV killed a 29-year-old woman and a six-month-old boy from Red Pheasant First Nation. The walk was held in two parts over two days, with Saturday’s participants walking for more than six hours to cover 33 kilometres from Cochin to North Battleford. Sunday the group headed from North Battleford and travelled just over 17 kilometres to the Red Pheasant crash site.
Memorial crosses were placed at both crash sites. Krista Fox and her boss Michael Collins helped organize the walk. The deaths hit Fox particularly hard because she personally knows the family of the Red Pheasant victims.
“On July 5 our community was hit really hard with two accidents. One going to the north on highway 4 and the second one going south. In the north accident, we lost a kokum and her two grandchildren, who were five and six years old.
“In the south one we lost a beautiful young mother and her six-month-old baby. And her three-year-old son is in Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital still fighting for his life,” Fox told 980 CJME. “About a week ago I woke up.