A West St. Paul family is grieving the loss of a loving father and son who were killed in a head-on snowmobile collision early Sunday morning.
Gary Schellenberg, 49, and his son Evan, 14, died in a crash that took place around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 24 near English Lake, an area located about an hour north of Powerview, Man.
"A friend of ours, he didn’t want me to go see them. I still haven’t seen them,” Linda Schellenberg told CTV News on Monday, holding back tears.
The mother of six now faces life without her partner of 31 years.
Gary is remembered as a devoted husband who enjoyed spending time with his kids and riding his snowmobile.
Evan is described as a happy kid who loved school, friends and playing the Xbox he got for Christmas.
The Schellenbergs said Evan was on his own snowmobile driving from the cabin to the campfire, about a kilometre and a half apart. Around the same time, his father and some other riders left the campfire for the cabin.
The family said it's possible one of them hit an ice rut, or Gary's goggles fogged up.
Russell Schellenberg, 21, was riding a snowmobile in the same group as his father when the crash took place.
"Checked out my dad and he's not breathing, and rush over to Evan and – as carefully as we could – pulled off his helmet and he was somewhat breathing,” said Russell.
One of the riders left and called 911, while Russell stayed at the scene and performed CPR. Russell said he doesn't believe much, if anything, could have been done to save his father and brother.
According to RCMP, police got the call for help around 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
Officers responded on snowmobiles around 4 a.m., and were assisted by a conservation officer familiar with the area to find the scene.
“Fair to say that several contributing factors – including the remoteness of the area, weather conditions preventing air ambulance from attending and the time of the collision – presented unique challenges for attending officers in this case,” said RCMP Sgt. Bert Paquet on Monday.
RCMP said officers found the father and son dead upon arrival. A woman, also hurt in the crash, was taken to hospital in stable condition.
Police are still investigating the crash, but do not consider alcohol a factor.
The Schellenbergs said everyone was sober, wearing a helmet and riding with headlights in use.
The family is vowing to stick together, and continue making good memories at the cabin.
“Every weekend we go out to the cabin, ride our snowmobiles; it was our favourite thing to do,” said Russell.
“Just an accident I guess. My husband Gary always said,'you have to believe in God and everything will fall into place',” said Linda.
According to Manitoba RCMP, 18 people have died in snowmobile-related incidents since the beginning of 2012 to present.
