A van carrying a high school boys' basketball team home from a game was only five minutes from their waiting parents when it fish-tailed on a slippery highway and slammed into a truck, killing seven players and an adult.
Emily Cleland, sister of victim Nathan Cleland, said some parents had gathered at a fast-food restaurant to pick up their children when they got a call to go to the hospital.
"He was my best friend, my whole life," Cleland said of her brother. "He was always so protective of me."
The Bathurst High Phantoms were returning from a game in Moncton, N.B., about 220 kilometres away, when the accident occurred on Highway 8 outside Bathurst shortly after midnight.
The force of the collision sliced open one side of the large white van and ejected benches and people everywhere. Hours later, the benches still lay strewn in the snow.
"When members arrived at the scene, all eight were dead -- there was nothing we could do," RCMP Sgt. Derek Strong said during a news conference later.
"This was a very, very major impact."
Strong said the road was icy at the time and the van's driver -- a teacher at the school and also the team's coach -- lost control.
The driver survived but his wife was killed.
Strong said officers who went to the accident scene were shaken by what they saw.
"Police officers go to a lot of accident scenes but this one was above and beyond anything any of us are used to," he said.
Twelve people were in the vehicle when it veered across the centre line and hit the truck. The van was equipped with seatbelts but investigators didn't know if they were used.
Lydia Dupere, a spokeswoman for the Acadie-Bathurst Health Authority, said three people were still in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A fourth person had been treated for injuries and released.
The truck driver wasn't hurt.
It had been snowing for most of the day in the Bathurst area, followed by a mix of snow and ice pellets, according to Environment Canada's website.
Names of the victims were not released.
Cleland said her brother had just turned 17 and was a point guard who averaged 20 points a game.
"He loved life and loved living it to its fullest," she said. "He was such a funny and great guy. He loved any sport but he really loved basketball. He's been playing since he was four."
School superintendent John McLaughlin said students, parents and teachers began gathering at Bathurst High at 4 a.m.
"This is a whole community in mourning," he said in an interview. "It's unthinkable what happened and everyone's trying to make some sense of it."
Condolences were being posted on the school's website from people across the country, while a Facebook site set up to remember those killed had 160 members by mid-morning.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent a letter of condolence to the school's principal, Coleen Ramsay.
"The sudden loss of eight people in this unthinkable accident shocked the nation and all Canadians join you in mourning their passing," it said.
"As a father, I particularly grieve with the parents who have lost their children. The seven promising young students will be missed dearly by their loved ones, fellow students, and the wider community of Bathurst."
Bathurst Mayor Stephen Brunet, who once taught at the school, said he went to the high school and hospital shortly after the accident.
"The families are bound to be still in shock," he said. "A few hours ago their children were happily playing basketball and now their lives are turned around in a matter of hours. It's unbelievable."
Brunet said he saw the van's driver at the hospital. They hugged and Brunet expressed his sorrow for what happened.
"Not only did he lose his team but he lost his wife as well," Brunet added. "He's in a state of shock, not knowing what to say or do, just hugging the parents that came along."
Bathurst Coun. Hugh Comeau, who knew some of the students, said they were "exceptional" young people.
"Those kinds of kids are very independent, focused, and (they) know what they're doing, so these were good kids," said Comeau.
"You only get a chance to say that after things like this happen. It's terrible."
A grief counsellor is being used by the school to help students cope.
"I'm dealing with a school in crisis," said principal Coleen Ramsay.
Premier Shawn Graham said grief over the deaths will be felt across the province.
"I was shocked and saddened when I received word of this tragic accident," he said in a statement. "This is a sad day for the families, for the people of Bathurst and for our province as a whole."
McLaughlin said Bathurst, a city of about 12,500 people, is a close-knit community.
"Everybody pretty well knows everybody, the staff and students are very close," he said.
"The students, for many of them, this is the first time they've ever had to face loss or death and to have to do that in a situation of this magnitude. It's unspeakable."
McLaughlin said he knows many of the boys who died personally.
"They were just such positive, high-energy, just typical all-Canadian boys, just wonderful kids, very well-liked, very personable and popular and very much leaders in their school," he added. "It's just a terrible tragedy."
There have been a number of fatal crashes over the years involving sports or school groups.
In 1986, a bus carrying the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League hit a patch of ice and skidded off a highway in Saskatchewan, killing four players.
In 2002, four children from a school in Newton, Mass., were killed when a bus carrying them to a music festival in Halifax went off the road near Sussex, N.B., and flipped.
In 2005, four people died when a bus carrying the Windsor Wildcats junior women's hockey team from Windsor Ont., slammed into a parked tractor-trailer near Rochester, N.Y.
Doug Prescott, president of the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association and a longtime basketball referee, called the crash "a terrible tragedy."
Prescott said he has known the Phantoms' head coach for years and knew some of the players through his capacity as a referee.
"Bathurst High is always one of the most sportsmanlike teams in the province of New Brunswick and they represent themselves with extreme pride," he said. "It's always a pleasure to either see them play or referee them."
Prescott, who is also principal of Riverview High in Riverview, N.B., said school officials are always aware of the potential dangers of driving long distances with teams this time of year.
"We all are very cognizant that any time our teams travel, they put themselves at some risk," he said.
"Weather varies from one region of the province to another and all coaches or assistant coaches take as much safety precautions as is humanly possible to ensure the safety of the student athletes who are entrusted to them."
