ANTIGONISH, N.S. – Skid marks on the highway show the path travelled by a vehicle as it crashed into the woods, leaving two people dead and one person injured.
Just before 7 p.m. on Saturday a car left highway 4 in Linwood, Antigonish County, rolled and struck a tree.
The two men in the front seat, a 23-year-old from Port Hastings and a 27-year-old from Troy, died at the scene and a 19-year-old female was airlifted to hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.
Shirley Decoste witnessed the accident. She says she watched the car hit the shoulder of the road, bounce back across the highway and disappear into the woods.
Fire Chief Chris Grover said after that, local residents jumped in to help before emergency crews arrived.
“Residents had a chainsaw and there was a tree on top of the vehicle so they were clearing the limbs and cutting the tree down,” said Grover.
Grover said it was extremely difficult to extricate the woman from the mangled wreckage. She was airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He says this was an especially difficult crash scene for some firefighters who were friends with the victims.
“It’s always challenging, I guess, in a small community. A lot of times you actually know the individuals who are involved with the incidents that we respond to, so it’s quite challenging from that perspective,” said Grover.
The highway was closed for several hours, and traffic analysts were called to the scene. Locals say cars often drive at speeds too high for that stretch of road.
“I try to discourage my kids from being on that section of road because there is no shoulder or anything like that and it’s really unfortunate that was the cause,” said nearby resident, Chris Cook.
RCMP are continuing the investigation into the accident.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.
