Survivor recalls deadly accident at inquest

The van that was carrying the Bathurst High School boys' basketball team rests on a flatbed truck in Bathurst, N.B. (Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

BATHURST, N.B. - One of the survivors of a crash in northern New Brunswick that claimed the lives of seven basketball players and their coach's wife says there was no warning of the crash.

Team member Bradd Arseneau told a coroner's inquest Tuesday that he doesn't remember many of the details leading up to the Jan. 12, 2008, accident.

Arseneau said he didn't pay attention to the weather or road conditions that night.

And the young member of the Bathurst High Phantoms said he didn't remember much about the team's loss to Moncton High that evening -- only that they stopped to eat before beginning the drive home.

It had been snowing most of the day, but Arseneau said there had been no talk of staying in Moncton.

"We didn't think we were. It was only one game and we only stayed overnight if it was a tournament," he said.

He said players were talking among themselves during the drive home to Bathurst, and all sang Happy Birthday to one of the team members as they neared the city.

He then closed his eyes and listened to music in the minutes prior to the crash.

"I was trying to sleep . . . my eyes were closed," he said. "Someone next to me yelled and I looked up as the accident happened. It was a blur."

The school's 15-passenger van had crossed into the path of an oncoming transport truck.

Coach and driver Wayne Lord testified Monday that the van caught a rut or the edge of the pavement, and once he corrected his steering the van continued into the path of the truck.

Off-duty RCMP Cpl. Mario Dupuis was first on the scene.

An emotional Dupuis said Tuesday he first thought there was just a truck off the road and called for an officer to come to the scene to direct traffic.

However, he soon discovered the situation was much worse when he walked past the truck.

"I could see the whole van ripped apart," he said.

"I called the RCMP and asked for a lot of officers and all the fire people because I probably had seven or eight dead at the scene."

Dupuis said he spoke with both drivers and began the search in the dark for the boys.

He said each one he found had no pulse.

"They were all deceased at the scene," he said.

Dupuis said there was a mix of rain and freezing rain, and the highway was covered in slush.

He told the inquest he could see a seven- to 10-centimetre drop at the edge of the pavement and could follow the tracks of the van from there to the point of impact.

Dupuis said hours later, at the hospital, the emotions of the event hit him and he went into a washroom and cried.

Bathurst pathologist Dr. Marinett Gutierrez conducted some of the autopsies on the victims.

She told the coroner's jury the boys suffered "multiple organ injuries as a result of the motor-vehicle accident."