Bathurst Accident Tribute

In the ditch beside the asphalt, a scar of dirt and bloodstained snow are all that remain of the terrible Friday night accident that injured Arseneault’s grandson Brad, and killed seven teammates from the Bathurst High School Phantoms senior basketball squad.

Brad Arseneault and another player survived the tragedy with broken bones. So did Katie Lord, a Grade 12 student at the school who had accompanied the team on its road trip last week to play a game in Moncton, two hours away.

The fourth survivor was Katie’s father Wayne Lord, the Phantoms’ much-respected coach, who was driving the passenger van in difficult weather when it veered into the left-hand lane and collided with an oncoming transport truck.

The accident also killed Lord’s wife Beth, a well-known and widely loved mathematics and music teacher who had worked at schools across northern New Brunswick.

While eight families here now grieve the loss of children and loved ones, Anne Arseneault’s family carries the trauma of feeling relief that their own boy survived the crash, while eight others were not so lucky.

“Oh my God we won the lotto we did,” said Arseneault. “No money can buy the life we got yesterday. But then you think of the others, and you’re sick to your soul.”

It could have been worse. Three members of the basketball team were too sick to make the journey to Moncton. Another boy, Brad Arseneault’s older brother Cal, quit the team in November to focus on his studies in the months leading up to Grade 12 graduation.

“Cal could have been in that van,” said Arseneault. “He’s taking this really hard. Two of the boys who died were his best friends in the world.

“The whole city is crying. I stand here and look at the flowers and the little candle there in the snow, and I just can’t imagine that those boys are gone.”

Along with Beth Lord, the dead include Nathan Cleland, 17, Javier Acevedo, 17, Codey Branch, 17, Justin Cormier, 17, Daniel Hains, 17, Nicholas Kelly, 15, and Nick Quinn, who turned 16 on Saturday.

Arseneault says the team had just finished singing Happy Birthday to Quinn inside the van after midnight — and was only minutes away from the McDonald’s restaurant in Bathurst where parents of the boys were waiting — when the crash occurred.

Half-an-hour later, the parents were asked to go to the hospital instead. They watched as four survivors were carried out of ambulances on stretchers, and were then told the other passengers were dead.

Among the parents, Anna Acevedo escaped war-torn El Salvador with her eldest daughter 20 years ago, and came to Canada.

Friends say when Javier was born, Anna treasured the fact that she would never have to worry about saving her son from political strife, the way she did her other children.

At the crash site Sunday, a folded, brown-paper Tim Horton’s bag was placed in the snow and inscribed with a simple tribute: “Javi — we love you and we miss you. Love, your family.”

Pilgrims came all day to the site, parking their cars on the shoulder of the road and gazing at a makeshift shrine of flowers, photographs — and a pair of portable basketball nets erected by students from Bathurst High.

Inside the school in downtown Bathurst, students filled eight white tablecloths with messages of love and sorrow. Flowers also filled the hallways.

The school intends to open for classes on Monday for those who want to attend. Dozens of teachers and psychologists from across the school district will also be available for students and staff seeking counselling.

“Although classes will be held, we know that tomorrow will definitely not be a normal day for any of us,” said Don McKay, the vice-principal, as small groups of students came to the school doors to lay flowers, and share hugs.

Bathurst is no stranger to bad news; the town’s once-prosperous pulp mill shut down two years ago putting hundreds out of work. But no human tragedy, taking the lives of so many young people, has ever hit so hard.

Flags on dozens of buildings are at half-mast. Sign boards across the city carry the same sentiment as the one outside the Home Hardware store: “God Bless our BHS Phantoms Angels.”

At the homes of grieving parents, friends and relatives came and went all weekend, carrying plates of food and messages of comfort.

And at church services, the names of the dead were read aloud, as worshippers whispered about the accident and prayed for the families.

“I had a hard time getting through those names I’ll tell you,” said Harvie Aubie, who struggled to hold back tears as he read the list during the Sunday service at Saint George’s Anglican Church.

After the service, people gathered over coffee to digest the news.

“I think everyone’s still in shock,” said Rod Black, the Anglican priest. “The school’s sports teams mean a lot in this town. They’re the movers and shakers. Those boys were involved in many things and knew a lot of people.”

Said Sharon Derouaux: “Mrs. Lord touched every child in the school system.

“Everybody here in Bathurst is somehow connected to the victims of this tragedy.”

RCMP officers said they are still investigating the crash, but throughout the weekend have downplayed any suggestions of wrongdoing as the cause of the crash.

School and city officials said the three surviving students remained in hospital on Sunday — one downgraded from intensive care — while Wayne Lord was allowed to go home on Saturday.

“It was an accident and nobody’s fault,” said Dale Branch, who lost his son Cody, and placed a picture of the tall, athletic teenager at the crash site.

“My heart goes out to all the other families,” he said. “I really, really appreciate the support of an entire community, and the calls we’re getting from all over Canada.”

The tragedy was remembered by the National Basketball Association Sunday when the Toronto Raptors held a minute of silence before their game against the Portland Blazers.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also sent his condolences on Saturday.

Said John McLaughlin, the Bathurst school’s superintendent: “This has really been just simply a terrible weekend for all of us. The loss of seven students and one of our teachers is such a horrific accident, it’s something none of us could ever have dreamed we’d ever be planning for.”

Two public wakes for the victims, to be held in the city’s hockey arena, have been scheduled for Tuesday, followed by funerals on Wednesday.