SHEDIAC, New Brunswick -- Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators Monday studied the scene where a semi-trailer truck hauling logs plowed into a hay wagon, tragically ending a family reunion hayride by killing 12 people and injuring 45 others.
RCMP spokesman Constable Ken Fraser said the truck was traveling east on Highway 945 near Cormier-Village, about 28 miles northeast of the New Brunswick city of Moncton, Sunday when it 'lost control' and struck a tractor pulling a hay wagon with about 50 people from the reunion.
Two pickup trucks behind the hay wagon were also involved in the 2 p.m. accident that killed 12 people, including five children, and injued about 45 others.
Ten ambulances and five rescue units responded from near Moncton, the biggest city in New Brunswick. The injured were taken to the Doctor George Dumont and the Moncton City Hospital, both in Moncton.
The driver of the semi and the tractor both survived and were hospitalized. Investigators interviewed the truck driver, Fraser said Monday at the RCMP office in Shediac, 12 miles northwest of the accident scene.
'An accident resconstruction team is at the scene at the present time and as result of their findings were should be able to conclude' how fast the truck was traveling when it hit the tractor, Fraser said.
He also said police were questioning the survivors and others involved in the hayride to ascertain the number of people in the hayride.
