Country Life in BC joins Western Canada’s dairy community as it mourns the loss of three young men and nearly two dozen animals in a head-on collision Sunday.
Brandon Johnson and Tanner Liefting were hauling Team BC heifers back from the Western Canadian Classic junior dairy competition in Brandon, Manitoba when their rig collided near Field, BC, with a truck hauling lumber.
The driver of the lumber truck, Jagsir Gill, was also killed.
Some of the cattle were enroute to the Interior Provincial Exhibition (IPE) taking place in Armstrong this week.
“This is a loss that affects not only our fair, but our community and the 4H program,” IPE posted to social media this week, expressing heartfelt sympathies to the 4-H youth who lost their animals and to the families of the drivers who lost their lives. “The kids raised these animals from newborn calves to yearlings. Eighteen of the animals in the crash were to be part of the show at the IPE this year.”
IPE dairy show sponsor WestGen also expressed its shock and condolences.
“The tragic accident … leaves all of us at WestGen devastated and broken-hearted,” it says. “For the competitors and owners who lost cherished animals, we know the huge emotional impact this has created.”
Disaster relief deadline passes