She first saw the crying teenagers, then the sneaker sitting on the shoulder of Highway 223 and then the IV bag lying in the middle of the road.
These are a few of the tragic images a Sydney Mines woman, who spoke to The Chronicle Herald on the condition of anonymity, says she witnessed on June 10 shortly after 4 a.m. on a remote highway in Leitches Creek. Joneil Hanna, 17, had just been struck and killed by a car.
Shortly before that, he and the driver had attended a raucous prom party in the community.
The woman, who had volunteered to be a designated driver for the event, remembersbeing approached by a Cape Breton Regional Police officer and asked if she would deliver the driver of the car that hit Joneil to his home. The woman did so but says she should never have been put in that position because she believes the young man was impaired by alcohol and ought to have been in police custody.
“It should never have happened,” said the woman. “I
believe he was impaired because he showed all the signs. He was staggering at the scene of the accident. As soon as he got inside my vehicle I could plainly smell alcohol. During the drive he cried a little but the majority of the way he was sleeping.”
The police department has faced heavy public scrutiny over its handling of the fatal incident and the subsequent investigation. Last week investigators determined alcohol did not play a role in the crash. News the driver hadn’t been subjected to a breathalyzer test sparked plenty of controversy among family and friends of the victim as well as the wider community.
The Chronicle Herald spoke to two people who were at the party that was attended by about 500 people and both said they saw the driver drinking alcohol.
“They (police) supervised an underage drinking party, that’s why this tragedy happened. They screwed up and that’s why there was never a breathalyzer. It’s a coverup. The driver had just come from the party. He was drunk.”
Police had previously said that up to 20 officers were monitoring the party throughout the night.
The Chronicle Herald made several attempts to reach Cape Breton Regional Police for comment but did not get a response.
The woman said she was driving a female home from the party and was at the McDonald’s in North Sydney when she was asked to go to the scene of the accident. Her passenger had been hanging out with a group of people at the party, including the suspected driver and his girlfriend.
“Her friends were at the scene of the accident saying that Joneil had been hit. The girl I drove home, she got a call saying somebody is dead. They wanted her to come right away.”
As they approached the scene, the woman remembers being passed by an ambulance she suspects was carrying Joneil.
The woman said that an hour and a half before the crash she was on the phone with a girl at the party and overheard someone pleading with the accused not to get behind the wheel of his car.
“She screamed, ‘You can’t drive, you’re drunk!’” The woman said once she arrived at the scene of the incident police began blocking off both sides of the highway. She said the police officer beckoned the driver, who was standing on the shoulder of the road, and she recalls him stumbling toward them. She recalls the officer taking the man’s keys before he left.
“He got in the car and I asked him if he was alright and he said no.”
She said he used her phone to speak with someone while he was being driven home.
“He was saying, ‘It doesn’t matter anymore, nothing matters. I’m gone.’” The woman has since reached out to Jenn Hanna, Joneil’s mother, with her story.
Hanna, who’s publicly criticized the actions of the police that night, believes the driver should have been subjected to a breathalyzer.
She’s in the process of filing a complaint to the chief of Cape Breton Regional Police. According to the Nova Scotia Police Act, the chief has a duty to ensure all complaints are resolved and is required to file a report to the province’s Police Complaints Commissioner for review.
The investigation is ongoing. Hanna says she’s had little contact with the case’s lead investigator and is losing hope that the driver will be held accountable for his actions.
“I’m not going to stop until I get justice for Joneil.”
