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CHAPAIS — The deaths of four members of the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi in a road crash has “devastated” the community, deputy chief Rhonda Oblin Cooper said Friday.
The four people were inside a van that collided with a pickup truck in the rural town of Chapais, about 475 kilometres north of Montreal, on Thursday. The driver of the pickup truck was also killed.
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Quebec provincial police are still investigating the incident, but have said preliminary information suggests the truck entered the wrong lane on Highway 113 and drove head-on into the van, which then caught fire.
Oblin Cooper said the van belonged to the regional health service and was shuttling patients to appointments at the time of the crash.
“It impacts the whole community,” she said in an interview. “We’re such a small community that when we lose four members … in this way, in such a tragic manner, it really tests the community.”
The Cree Nation of Waswanipi, located about 75 km west of Chapais, will begin four days of mourning on Friday, an occasion Cooper said will include community events to reflect on the victims’ lives.
The Sûreté du Québec says the five people killed in the crash were four men, ages 45, 47, 63 and 69, and one woman, age 60.
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