Commitment and Tragedy

"The two people with the SUV were taken to hospital and the driver of the van was also taken to hospital where he was treated, released and has been taken into police custody."
RCMP Cpl. Julie Rogers-Marsh, New Brunswick

"I think traffic was his passion. He came to work every day and did a 100 percent job."
"He was always friendly, always a happy, go-lucky guy and he's going to be sadly missed."
Cpl. Darren Galley, Codiac detachment, New Brunswick

"As I got closer I noticed there were cars in places where they shouldn't have been on the side of the road. I noticed a lot of flashing lights and a police car that looked severely damaged."
"They [RCMP] put their lives at risk a lot. They have a tough and difficult job and don't receive a lot of credit for what they do."
John Morris, Photographer, passing motorist, Trans-Canada Highway

Members of the public are being encouraged to sign books of condolences set up at the RCMP detachment in Amherst and at the headquarters in Halifax. (Tori Weldon/CBC)

"It is extremely challenging to describe what it feels like when we lose one of our own. In the RCMP, we are a family and every employee in Nova Scotia and across the country is impacted by the loss of Francis … Frank as he was better known."
"[His actions on Tuesday] speaks to the core of what policing should be — involved in your community, looking out for people, taking the time to do those small things that would go a long way."
"They (Const. Deschenes' family] are dealing with unimaginable tragedy, and I ask that they be given the privacy and respect they deserve as they grieve the loss of their husband, son, brother and friend."
Assistant RCMP Commissioner Brian Brennan

In 2008, Nova Scotia Mountie Francis Deschenes came to the help of a 26-year-old woman near Truro, Nova Scotia. Her vehicle had come to a stop on railroad tracks even while a Canadian National freight train was oncoming at high speed. With the quick thinking this man was noted for, he pushed the stalled car off the tracks using his own cruiser to accomplish the feat with seconds to spare, saving the situation from becoming a tragedy.

A trail derailment could have resulted had the oncoming train collided with the car, and most certainly its inhabitant, the young woman, would have died in the collision. This event earned him recognition as a heroic figure, able to think swiftly of a solution to an emergent calamity. In 2013, by then having been with the RCMP for a decade of distinguished service, he became a recipient of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal, meant to recognize and honour "significant contributions and achievements by Canadians."

Since then he married, as recently as the past summer. He was in uniform, in a police vehicle when he stopped to assist motorists more recently, two days ago in south-eastern New Brunswick. The officer had stopped on the Trans-Canada Highway to offer help when he saw two people in a SUV trying to change a tire. His specialty with the national police force was as a traffic reconstructionist trained to investigate collisions and determine their causes; a member of the Special Tactical Operations/Tact Troop. Irrespective of the presence of his parked police vehicle, lights flashing as a warning, a driver of a van heedlessly crashed into the cruiser and the SUV, killing Const. Deschenes immediately.

Const.Deschenes, 35, formerly a member of the RCMP's musical ride program, was stationed in Amherst, Nova Scotia, involved in efforts to inform the public that legislation existed in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick requiring drivers to slow down and move over whenever they see emergency vehicles stopped along the highway. It is a supreme irony that this dedicated police officer, who took an especial role with respect to traffic safety would have lost his life while helping members of the public, by the very vehicular homicide he was attempting to alert drivers to.

Flags outside the Amherst RCMP detachment were at half-mast on Wednesday. (Tori Weldon/CBC)