SUDBURY - Tuesday, March 4, 1975, began like any other school day for the children of St. Albert's Separate School on Eyre Street.
Teachers were welcoming their arriving students to another day of class. Children who lived nearby were walking along Eyre and Albert Streets heading for the entrance to the schoolyard, while their bus-riding classmates were arriving and disembarking nearby.
All of this happiness and hope for another exciting school day would disappear in the blink of an eye that fateful morning though, leaving an entire school community in mourning and two devastated families in its wake.
Shortly before 9 a.m., as the school bell rang and children arrived, Mr. Laine Poulin, 60 (or 62, depending on the report), owner of Sunshine Cleaners on Elm Street West, was driving one of his company’s vehicles westbound and approaching the intersection of Albert and Eyre Streets.
At Poulin approached the intersection, he suffered a fatal heart attack (latered determined to be caused by a coronary thrombosis) that caused him to slump forward against the steering wheel and veer off course.
At the same moment, a school bus filled with lively pre-schoolers sat in front of the school while the youngsters disembarked. After four-year-old Tommy Fraboni stepped off the bus, he bolted in the direction of the schoolyard. The running child was duly chased by Gordon Lapointe, 13, who was on duty as a lieutenant in the school safety patrol, tasked with helping children cross the street.
Poulin’s vehicle, completely out of control, careened across Eyre Street and jumped the curb onto the sidewalk, slamming into Gordon and Tommy as the 13-year-old tried to push the younger boy to safety. The runaway vehicle struck another two students — Marcel Paquette, 13, and his brother, Renald, 10 — before plowing through a seven-foot chain-link fence and into the St. Albert's schoolyard, sending dozens of children scrambling out of its deadly path.
The runaway van could have caused more damage had it not been for the quick thinking of 15-year-old Rheal Renaud.
As the van continued on another 50 yards across the icy schoolyard, Rheal, a Grade 8 student, dashed across the schoolyard and jumped up onto the side of the out-of-control vehicle, managing to open the door in the process. He was then able to get his foot on the brake and stopped the vehicle only ten yards short of a house that bordered the schoolyard.
Once people got to Gordon’s side, Kenneth Braumberger, the principal of the English section of St. Albert’s, said the boy showed “no visible external injuries other than extreme paleness” which he attributed to shock.
The injured children were immediately covered with coats and sweaters to ward off shock and cold. In the case of little Tommy Fraboni, the teachers on scene tried their best to ease his pain, but they were afraid to move him due to possible unknown internal injuries.
When ambulances arrived, Lapointe and Fraboni were quickly rushed to Memorial Hospital.
Unfortunately, shortly before 11 a.m., Gordon Lapointe, the 13-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Florent (Fern) Lapointe, died. Coroner Dr. J. A. Pidutti found the boy had died of a fractured skull and multiple internal injuries.
It is believed that Gordon was the first student guard in Canada to be killed in the line of duty. From Memorial Hospital, Tommy Fraboni was transferred to the intensive care unit at the General Hospital due to a head injury. The other two injured students, the Paquette brothers, were taken to the General Hospital where they were treated for cuts and bruises, and later released. Regional police reported that the van brushed one of the brothers while flying debris from the fence struck the other.
Braumberger, the principal, described the scene as if the van was a bowling ball barrelling down a lane.
“The children scattered like 10 pins,” he said. “There couldn't have been more students in the yard. Everything happened (all) at once."
The closest children to witness the event told Braumberger that after the van struck the fence, they could no longer see the driver. Braumberger, the first person on the scene after the vehicle came to a halt, found Poulin slumped fully across the front seat.
“I checked the boys first and then went to see about the driver," said Braumberger. "His face was turning purple and breathing was very shallow. I thought he had suffered a heart attack although I couldn't say for sure because I have never seen a heart attack victim."
Young Gordon had a job as a newspaper carrier for the Sudbury Star, covering a route along the Pine Street corridor. His mother, Yvonne, still in shock from the news of her son's death, said in an interview with the newspaper at the time that her son was "so happy, this year, he had just joined the Air Cadet No. 200 squadron, and planned to go to St. Charles College and then make a career of becoming a pilot in the Royal Canadian armed forces.
"He loved his paper route, and his customers, they were so good to him, and he was so enthusiastic about becoming an air cadet, it's tragic that his young life has been snuffed out this way, but my heart also goes out to Mrs. Poulin, she too must be suffering as much as we are, with the sudden loss of her husband."
Three days later, the community gathered a short block and half north of the tragedy, at St. Eugene Roman Catholic Church, to mourn the loss of Gordon Lapointe. Prior to the funeral mass, more than 1,000 people were known to have attended Lougheed Funeral Home during the visitation hours.
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces Air Cadet Squadron No. 200, made up of more than 250 youngsters from all across the region, formed nine flights (marching rows), along with a colour guard and pipe band to lead a parade from the nearby Lougheed Funeral Home all the way to the church.
At least 50 school guard patrollers led by Staff Sergeant Archie Stewart, as well as a large contingent of Sudbury Star carrier boys, headed by circulation manager Keith Sabourin, filed into the church alongside the funeral cortege. While nine members of Gordon Lapointe’s own “flight” within the squadron acted as pallbearers, he was given full military honours as an air cadet.
Upwards of 750 relatives, friends and acquaintances crowded into the church (with the exception of a few who were left standing in the entrance and on the steps) in order to pay tribute to this young hero. The Poulin family were also represented at the funeral today by a relative, and the grief-stricken Mrs. Poulin, sent a message of condolence to the Lapointe family.
It was reported that the parish priest, Rev. J. P. Jolicoeur, who celebrated the Requiem mass “extol(led) the boy's virtues in a fine, but emotional eulogy (from which) many of the youngsters wept.”
As of the day of the funeral, the condition of four-year-old Tommy Fraboni, still resting in the intensive care unit, remained unchanged according to reports from the General Hospital listing him in “fair” condition. He would eventually leave the hospital and make a full recovery.
Today, 50 years after the accident, let us take the time to mourn the loss of a life that was just beginning and the potential that could no longer be fulfilled due to this tragedy. St. Albert's Separate School is now gone, but the site of the heroic actions of both Gordon Lapointe and Rheal Renaud remains and is now known as the “Marguerite and Gerry Lougheed Park.” Maybe, in this anniversary year, a plaque should be erected to honour the heroism that was displayed on that tragic day.
But, for now, let us just say: Thank you and rest in peace, Gordon.
Jason Marcon is a writer and history enthusiast in Greater Sudbury. He runs the Coniston Historical Group and the Sudbury Then and Now Facebook page. Then & Now is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.