Klassen, Tony Peters (2008-2009)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2009 Mar 16 p. 6

Birth date: 2008

text of obituary:

4 die in Alberta crash

By Mennonite Weekly Review staff

Four members of a Mennonite family are among those who died in a car accident March 1 in southeastern Alberta.

A van in which six members of the family was traveling went sideways on Highway 3 and struck a car carrying two passengers, Canadian news sources reported.

Three children — Johny Peters Klassen, 5, Netha Klassen, 3, and Tony Peters Klassen, 1, from Grimshaw in northern Alberta — were pronounced dead at the scene. Their grandmother, Helena Klassen, 54, of Purple Springs, was also killed. The children's father, Klaus Klassen, 24, and grandfather, Peter Klassen, 58, were airlifted to a Calgary hospital in serious condition.

A woman, 58, from Saskatoon, Sask., in the other vehicle died, and her husband, 63, was hospitalized.

Sara Klassen, 23, the children's mother, who was not in the vehicle, told the Calgary Herald, "I feel like it's a nightmare, that I'll wake up and it won't be true."

Her Mennonite community is supporting her, said Klassen, who was born in Mexico.

"I'm getting a lot of help," she said.

Police said they were looking into causes of the collision, but did not believe alcohol was a factor. Roads were wet but clear.

This is the second time in recent months Alberta Mennonites have lost community members in a car accident.

Seven Mennonites from southern and central Alberta died in an accident in Colorado Nov. 20 as they returned from visiting relatives in Mexico.