Hockey players stranded on bus overnight
A group of young hockey players was happy to get home after being stranded overnight on a DRL bus caught in a storm that slammed much of Newfoundland.
Players of Central Thunder left St. Anthony on Sunday, trying to get home to Grand Falls-Windsor.
Bus driver Paul Oake said he could hardly see the roads.
"You couldn't see nothing — it was just the same as a white curtain in front of you," he said. "You couldn't even see the wipers on the windshield, it was that bad."
Parent Jody Fancey, who was on the bus with the players, said they had planned to stay at a hotel in Cow Head, but didn't make it that far.
"Our bus driver found an opening where he could back up the bus and head face-in to the wind so we wouldn't blow over," Fancey said.
She credits the bus driver for their safety.
"I really do believe that had our bus driver not taken such good care of us, we would have been like the nine other people off the road that we saw this morning," Fancey said.
Shawn Loveridge, a player on the hockey team, said they were safe, but not particularly comfortable.
"I didn't sleep. I tried sitting up, but it didn't work so I just pulled an all-nighter," Loveridge said.
He said that by the end of their journey, people started feeling the effects of being on a bus that long.
"We were getting close to 24 hours before getting here without getting off, so it gets pretty gross on there — pretty human stuff," he laughed.
"I'd say if you went on there now, you wouldn't be too impressed."
Despite the experience, Fancey said more trips are definitely in the future.
"We're hockey moms, of course we would."
