Monday, July 9, 2018

Cross-Canada trek ends in tragedy

The cross-Canada tractor trek in support of milk supply management has ended in tragedy in Saskatchewan.

Bettina Schuurmans is dead and her husband, Henk, is in critical condition after their tractor was hit by a transport truck on Highway 16 at Delmeny, about 40 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

The crash happened at about 10 a.m., Monday, about three hours after they left in high spirits for another day of travelling towards Vancouver.

The Elmira couple began their trek in late June, towing a float of a Holstein cow they called Maple behind their John Deere 6480 with a roof, but an open cab.

The tractor had a top speed of about 40 kilometres per hour, so relatives warned motorists in a Twitter post that traffic on the trans-Canada highway might be slow and asked them to give the Schuurmans a honk in support of supply management.