First responder haunted by images of crash
Posted Jun 18, 2013 7:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s been more than five years since a horrific crash took the lives of five people on MacLeod Trail, but it’s been forever ingrained into the mind of one officer.
Inspector Darrell Hesse was one of the first to arrive that fateful December day in 2007 when a cement truck slammed into the back of a Chrysler Intrepid.
Chris Gautreau and his daughters Alexia and Kiarra, along with Melaina Hovdebo and her infant son Zachary Morrison were killed.
The driver of the cement truck, 55-year-old Daniel Tschetter, told police he had been looking at his air gauge at the time but witnesses reported seeing him weave through traffic, speed and tailgate.
On Friday, Tschetter was released after serving two-thirds of a five-and-a-half year sentence for manslaughter.
Hesse remembers trying to secure the scene himself in hopes of shielding other officers from the carnage inside the twisted piece of metal.
He writes in The Calgary Sun he had wanted to limit the exposure of other officers on the scene, recognizing the psychological impact it might have.
An 18-year veteran of the force, he says he’s seen a lot of horrors over the course of his career but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw that night.
At times, Hesse tells the newspaper, he’s haunted by the images of the five people crushed inside the barely recognizable car.
He recalls how firefighters feverishly worked in vain to free the victims inside.
And he adds the look of horror on each of their faces will forever be burned into his brain.
The police inspector wants Tschetter to know that his deliberate actions not only took the lives of the victims but also impacted first-responders.
Now that Tschetter is a free man, Hesse hopes he becomes a contributing member of society rather than one who takes away from it.
