New Brunswickers mark loss of 4 young people in crash
People in New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula are mourning the deaths of four young people killed in a car crash on the weekend.
Marie-Hélène Gauvin, 17, Tommy Losier, 18, Brian Basque, 19, and Alexandre McGraw, 20, were in the car that plunged off a slippery road in the Tracadie-Sheila early Saturday morning.
Their bodies were recovered from the frigid and murky Tracadie River later that afternoon.
The three young men were from communities in the Tracadie-Sheila area, while Gauvin was from Pointe-Canot.
Churchgoers in Tracadie-Sheila observed a moment of silence for the victims on Sunday.
Mayor Aldeoda Losier said many residents responded to a Facebook campaign to turn off their Christmas lights to mark the loss.
Losier said the crash happened on a former military range that is usually inaccessible at this time of year because of snow.
“What we heard is during the evening when they went out there was no ice on the road. But when they came back, there was some ice on the road,” he told CBC News on Sunday.
The investigation into the cause of the crash continues.
Jean-Claude Doiron told CBC News the four friends were celebrating the birthday of his nephew, Brian Basque, who just turned 19.
Doiron also said the car Basque was driving was a birthday present from his mother.
