Parents have doubts as N.B. van inquest begins

By Richard Foot, Canwest News Service May 3, 2009

Click for full story in the Calgary Herald

A high-profile coroner's inquest begins Monday into the highway accident that killed seven high-school basketball players and an adult chaperon near Bathurst, N.B., in 2008.

However, serious questions have emerged about whether the inquest will properly investigate the crash and satisfy the demands of grieving relatives, because of what some are calling New Brunswick's outdated and toothless inquiry process.

"I don't have much faith in this inquest. I think it's doomed from the start," says Isabelle Hains, the mother of Daniel Hains, 17, who died in the crash. "I'm not going there expecting too much."

Hains and six other teenage members of the Bathurst High School basketball team died on Jan. 12, 2008, when the passenger van in which they were travelling collided with an oncoming tractor-trailer.


Click for full story in the Calgary Herald