 On the afternoon of Sunday, October 8, 1989, the members of the McGraw and Leger families were participating in a hayride, travelling in a wagon pulled by a farm tractor, as well as two following pickup trucks, along the shoulder of Route 945.They were approximately from the end of the ride at a community hall in Cormier-Village where they had planned a family reunion as part of their celebration of Thanksgiving Weekend.The driver of a tractor trailer (logging truck) hauling a 6-tonne load of hardwood logs cut into lengths lost control as he passed, resulting in the entire load of logs tipping onto the tractor/wagon and pickup trucks.