Drunken Brother Run Over

By KIM BRADLEY -- Staff Writer

Dean Cardinal watched in horror as his drunken little brother was run down by a semi after throwing up beside a northern Alberta highway.

Cardinal said he and his 22-year-old brother Francis had been out with their cousin, Richard Beauregard, in Slave Lake and were on their way home to Wabasca about 11:30 p.m. Thursday when the accident happened.

Francis had had too much to drink and needed to throw up, so Beauregard pulled the truck over to the side of Highway 754, five kilometres north of Highway 88 between Slave Lake and Wabasca, to let him out, said Cardinal.

"He went to the other side of the road and when he was coming back the truck was too close," he said, his voice trailing off. "We tried to wave but he couldn't see us. The truck hit the brakes and that was it. I don't know what to think today."

Slave Lake RCMP are still investigating the cause of the accident and said yesterday no charges had been laid. They say alcohol was a factor.

Jean Beauregard, who saw her son for the last time the day he died, said he was a good kid who had just got a new job after being laid off from his seasonal job.

"We were very close," she said tearfully. "I lost one son two years ago and now I've lost another one."

In 1995, she said, Francis's life changed dramatically when one of his three brothers committed suicide.

The two will be buried side by side in a cemetery near their home, she said. Francis's funeral arrangements were still being finalized yesterday. Wabasca is 150 km north of Slave Lake, which is 250 northwest of Edmonton.