As this grieving city prepares to bury seven boys killed on the weekend, one of the survivors of the deadly highway crash offered a glimpse of the horrific scene that night.
Bradd Arseneau was one of 12 people returning home from a high-school basketball game in Moncton. The weather was good when they left, he said, but it worsened as they got closer to this community in the north of the province.
The young man said he was napping next to fellow athlete Tim Daley when he heard his friend shout "Oh God."
"I heard and felt the impact," Mr. Arseneau told CTV.
The van they were being driven in had skidded into the path of a transport truck. The force of the impact tore the vehicle open and sent benches and passengers flying. Mr. Arseneau found himself lying in the snow.
"The only person I could see was Timmy, who was praying," he remembered. "I just called his name, reached over my hand and told him I loved him. He grabbed it."
They were the lucky ones. Seven students and one adult were killed and Mr. Arseneau, who sustained four broken ribs and a bruised lung, will be attending the mass funeral today for his teammates.
He will be joined by thousands of people in this community, which is still reeling from the early Saturday crash. A storm that closed local schools yesterday wasn't enough to stop crowds lining up to offer their personal condolences to the boys' families.
Cars inched into the icy parking lot of the local hockey arena, where the student athletes will remain until today's funeral. People hugged and cried as they waited in the swirling snow, the line stretching at times almost to the back of the building.
"We'll wait an hour or two if we have to," said Edward Aube, 55. "I had a brother that I lost on graduation night, many years ago, so I know what it's like to lose a family member."
The huge crowd extended the afternoon visitation until well past its scheduled finish. More people turned up for the evening visitation and today's funeral is expecting an overflow crowd.
The young victims, all students at Bathurst High School, were being driven by their coach when the vehicle skidded across the road. The coach, his daughter and two student athletes survived, but seven other students were killed in the collision with the truck. The coach's wife was also killed, with a separate funeral planned for her tomorrow.
The safety of the vehicle they were travelling in continues to raise questions, with Transport Canada announcing that it will investigate the crash and use its findings when establishing specific standards for 15-passenger vans.
But the focus here is almost exclusively on the tragedy, not how it happened.
Coffins containing the young men were laid out on the covered ice at the K.C. Irving centre, where work crews have been preparing the venue since the weekend. At each casket, the event's technical co-ordinator said, the young victim's families received a constant stream of well-wishers.
"I think they're a source of strength for the whole community, the way they're handling it," said Luc Foulem, himself a father of three.
People have been flocking to the city, booking hotels solid and taking all the rental cars available locally. Premier Shawn Graham is among the high-profile people expected, and many in the city believe that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will turn up.
Many local companies plan to close in the afternoon, allowing their staff the time to grieve. One of these businesses is the local Sobeys, which has been having trouble keeping flowers in stock. The store got a new shipment yesterday afternoon, a clerk said.
Some forecasts put the likely funeral attendance as high as 6,000 - far more than the arena can hold. The overflow crowd will be able to watch the service on closed-circuit television at another rink. And people in the parking lot of the Irving centre will be able to hear the service.
