'I don't know why I'm alive,' says survivor still recovering from deadly Manitoba bus crash a year ago
CBC
Josephine Stokotelny doesn't remember much about what happened on June 15 of last year.
But she knows it's the day her life changed.
The 86-year-old was among the 25 people on the small bus that departed Dauphin, Man., and was then involved in a collision with a semi-trailer near Carberry, at the intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway.
"From Neepawa we were driving to the No. 1 highway … and I don't remember seeing what happened," she said.
The crash was one of the deadliest in the province's history, leaving 17 people dead and eight others injured.
Josephine Stokotelny knew many of the people on the bus that day.
"I was very sorry about all these people that died," she said. "And that's why I keep their picture handy and pray for them."
She and her three children spoke with CBC about the crash, her long road to recovery, and questions that remain unanswered nearly a year later.
It was a Thursday morning when the group on the bus — mostly seniors from the Dauphin area — headed out on a day trip to the casino near Carberry, a roughly 200-kilometre drive to the south.
Don Stokotelny, Josephine's son, knew she was on the bus. She had mentioned she was taking a trip to the casino the day before, he said.
That's why on June 15, 2023, when a friend came into his shop talking about a crash, he immediately feared the worst.
"It hit me and I said, 'I think my mom's on that bus,'" said Don.
As bits of information about the crash trickled out, Don and his sisters, Mary Marzyk and Lynda Thompson, were among the families desperate to learn the fates of their loved ones.
Hours passed before the family got a sign their mom was alive.
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