CHIPMAN, N.B. – While RCMP try to piece together what happened, the rural communities around Chipman, N.B. are in mourning after a crash that took the lives of two teens.
Fourteen-year-old Saydi Cormier of Cumberland Bay, N.B. and 13-year-old Taylor McNamara of Chipman, were killed when the truck they were travelling in lost control down a back road, hit an embankment and landed on its roof in the water.
There were two other 18-year-old boys in the truck who were able to escape, run to a main road and call for help. Cormier and McNamara remained in the water until first responders arrived.
“You’d never wake up and think well, I’ve got to say goodbye to him because he’s going to die today. So you don’t get a chance to say goodbye,” said a friend of the two teens, Sarah Gould.
There are few words, but somehow Cormier and McNamara’s friends found some as they spoke about who the young teens were.
“Sadie was great. She was unique in her own way. She would dye her hair whatever colour she wanted and she wouldn’t care what people thought. She was just amazing,” said friend Madison Hargrove.
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“Taylor was a great guy, a great friend, he’d give his life for you. He’d always make you feel great,” said Gould.
The other two involved in the crash are recovering from undetermined injuries.
“I wonder how anybody, at all, even survived,” said Edward Gauthier, who was on the scene.
According to members of the community, Cormier and McNamara were dating. Those who knew the two teens described them as “awesome.”
“He was just amazing. He loved to have fun and he loved his family,” said Ashley McKinley of McNamara.
Many people in the community said this isn’t the time to point fingers, but to remember the young teens for who they were.
“They were doing what every kid does, they go backroading, that’s all there is to do in Chipman really. What else are they supposed to do,” said McKinley.
“They just made a mistake. They were just kids being kids,” said Vicki McKay, a friend of the teens.
Chipman Forest Avenue School will have grief counsellors ready for students next week.
First responders getting counselling
As members of the community grieve, emergency responders are also dealing with Thursday’s events.
Members of the Chipman Fire Department, a volunteer crew, were among the first on the scene. They worked to remove the submerged truck and assisted paramedics as they tried to resuscitate the victims.
It was a harrowing scene for them, one that can be hard to forget.
“For an emergency responder, it’s the days afterwards when it really starts to come back to you, what really took place on that morning,” said Deputy Fire Chief, Barry Armstrong.
“You know, some of our members do have a hard time dealing with this when it happens. And some of them have young children of their own of the same age, and it’s very hard.”
First responders were invited to a debrief in the village office Friday afternoon. They met with counsillors to talk through what happened.
Councillors will return to the village in about two weeks to continue to help.
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