BATHURST, N.B. - A coroner's inquest in New Brunswick has been told a number of boys from a high school basketball team were not wearing seatbelts when their van crashed, killing eight people.
The inquest is examining the January 2008 crash on a slippery Highway 8 near Bathurst, N.B., that claimed the lives of seven boys on the team and their coach's wife.
RCMP accident reconstructionist Cpl. Annie Neilson told the inquest today an examination of the van shows seven of the boys were not wearing their seatbelts.
She said the coach's wife, Beth Lord, and her daughter Katie were not wearing their seatbelts properly.
The only ones wearing their seatbelts properly were coach and driver Wayne Lord and players Tim Daley and Nick Quinn - Quinn died while the coach and Daley survived.
But Neilson could not say if seatbelts would have saved anyone, because the bench seats were violently ejected from the van when it collided with a transport truck.
