'Bodies of children strewn everywhere'

RHÉAL SÉGUIN in Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Nicolet, Que. ANDRÉ PICARD in Montreal

Everyone cried.

Veteran rescue workers -- ambulance drivers, firefighters, police officers and tow-truck operators -- were in tears after they saw the bodies of so many tiny children scattered across a roadside ditch, thrown from a minivan in a collision on the way to a sugar shack for a birthday outing.

Seven preschool children from a small Quebec community died in the accident yesterday morning with the operator of their daycare at the wheel. Three other children were injured in the accident, including a four-year-old boy who remained in critical condition last night with multiple head and abdominal injuries.

Daniel Normand, an ambulance driver and one of the first to arrive at the accident scene, said it was "a scene from hell. There were bodies of children strewn everywhere. We didn't know where to start."

The dead children ranged in age from 2 to 5. The driver's son was among those killed. All of the victims died of multiple head and abdominal injuries, according to doctors.

One child seat was found at the scene. The minivan, designed to carry a driver and six passengers, had been carrying 10 children. Police could not say how many children were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.

Daniel Lamirande, a spokesman for the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police, said parents of the children were on the scene within minutes of the crash, some hysterical with grief.

"It was a very emotional scene," he said.

The children were being transported in a late-model Ford minivan along a rural road when the driver, Jeanne Auger, hit a patch of ice and lost control, skidding sideways across the road.

Another minivan travelling in the opposite direction hit the side of Ms. Auger's vehicle, which then crashed through a guard rail and rolled into a ditch. As many as eight children were thrown from the vehicle.

Ms. Auger's son Samuel, 5, was among the four children who died on impact. Another was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, and two more died as a medical team worked desperately to save them. "We did everything we could; there was nothing else we could do," said Martin Lamy, one of the surgeons on the trauma team. "If the children had been wearing seat belts they would not have been ejected, so the injuries would have been less severe."

The driver of the other van, Wayne Kroeker, said the vehicle suddenly swerved into his path.

"I saw the woman at the last second. I didn't see any children," he said. "But then I saw children all over the field."

Mr. Kroeker was not injured seriously. He was wearing a seat belt and his car's air bag deployed.

Word spread quickly through the small village after the accident, which happened at 9:15 a.m. Police said some of the volunteers arriving to help discovered that their children were among the dead.

As the children's parents and relatives gathered at the hospital in nearby Trois-Rivières, clutching one another in tears, villagers examined the wreckage in disbelief.

"This is so very, very hard for our small community," resident Claude Dupuis said, on the verge of tears as he stood gazing at the accident site.

"It's like a big flash has blinded us," said Marcel Tremblay, mayor of the community of 8,000, which is about 140 kilometres northeast of Montreal. "My only thoughts go to the families, the mothers and fathers who must now pull themselves out of this tragedy,"

Premier Lucien Bouchard immediately ordered an inquiry into the accident. He also expressed his sympathy to the families of the victims, and the National Assembly marked the tragedy with a minute of silence.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien expressed his sympathy for the families.

"There are a lot of people who are in pain tonight and we want to share the pain with them," Mr. Chrétien said. "We will be praying for the recovery of those who survived."

Police and ambulance attendants cleared the accident scene of victims within 45 minutes, but in the confusion, one child was temporarily lost. Police reported all day that nine children were aboard the van, but a 10th was eventually found at the hospital.

"A four-year-old girl had miraculously walked away from the accident and was immediately taken in by a passing vehicle and was transported to the hospital," said Mr. Lamirande of the police force. "Someone at the hospital identified her as one of the passengers aboard."

Mr. Lamirande said yesterday that the police investigation could lead to charges against the driver of the minivan. But he said it was too early to say exactly what will happen.

"Yes, the law may have been broken, but how many laws, that has yet to be determined," Mr. Lamirande said. "Probably there is a possibility there were too many people in the van and probably some laws were broken."

But he said the law is vague when it comes to the number of passengers allowed in any single vehicle, especially children.

He added that the only two seat belts that appeared to work were the ones in the front seats of the van. The children sitting in the back of the vehicle were all ejected.

"We are unable to say which ones had seat belts and which ones didn't," Mr. Lamirande said.

Ms. Auger, one of the operators of the privately run daycare centre, was in a state of shock yesterday and was in no condition to be questioned, the police said.

The centre was licensed by the Quebec government to operate at Ms. Auger's residence.

The windows of the green, two-storey house were covered with Easter decorations yesterday. A child's bicycle, a basketball net and a pint-sized shovel were visible in the yard.

A neighbour described the woman as "super friendly" and "a real mother." He said the "kids were happy and things were well run."

Gaetan Fleurent, whose five-year-old daughter Lêane died in the crash, called the day-care operator "a jewel. We have always been very very satisfied."

Provincial coroner Renald Gauthier will hold an inquiry of his own and make recommendations regarding the transportation of children by daycare centres.

"I just came back from the morgue. What a heart-wrenching experience," said François Houle, a spokesman for Dr. Gauthier's office, before attending a news conference.

Mr. Houle suggested that with so many children involved, it is likely that the public will demand clear recommendations regarding the safety of children in daycares.

A team of social workers and psychologists has been assembled to help the families through their mourning. Part of the process yesterday was to allow parents to spend as much as two hours with the children after identifying the bodies.

THE DEAD

Four girls and three boys died in the traffic accident yesterday in Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Nicolet: Stacy RToy, 2 Frédéric Isabel-Fournier, 5 Karl Tailly-Duval, 5 Leane Fleurent-Drouin,5 Laurence Allaire, 4 Viviane Cloutier, 4 Samuel Auger-Chauvette, 5 Three other childreen between the ages of four and six were injured, two of them seriously.