‘Crying shame:’ Balcarres mayor remembers family killed in crash

“Anytime that something like this happens you’ll always try and wonder why — and when it happens on Christmas Day of all days,” the mayor of Balcarres paused. “Yeah, it was a complete absolute shock.”

Kent Esplin was talking about the three members of a family in his community who were killed in a highway crash early Christmas morning: Teagan Hollinger, 16, Christine Keller, 51, and John Bellegarde, 48.

The three were in an SUV driven by another member of their family, an 18-year-old woman, when – according to RCMP – a half-ton truck crossed the centre line and hit the SUV head-on.

The three were killed in the crash, while the woman who was driving the SUV was taken to hospital. Esplin said she’s out of the hospital now and seems to be doing alright.

“Christmas will never be the same for her, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

Esplin seemed to know Hollinger best, describing the teenager as a good kid with lots of close friends.

“He just was a kid that just didn’t have any enemies, just a very well-liked kid. Soft-spoken. One of the good ones,” the mayor remembered. “It’s just a crying shame that something like this has happened.”

Esplin said he knew Christine a bit as well, saying she was always generous with her time when it came to her daughter’s dance and Hollinger’s minor hockey.

On Thursday night, an event was held at the local rink. Esplin said a member of the community opened it up and invited anyone who wanted to come.

“People skated, people just sat around on the bleachers or the benches and basically just socialized. And whether it’s a reflection of Teagan’s life and Christine and John, or mainly just to get everyone together to have an event where they could just get rid of some pain and suffering and that type of thing.”

Esplin said it seemed to help because people didn’t really know how to express their feelings about what happened.