Funerals for overpass victims held Friday

Hundreds of people gathered in a church in Laval, north of Montreal, to say goodbye to three of the five people killed in the Sept. 30 overpass collapse.

Funeral services for Jean-Pierre Hamel, 40, his partner, Sylvie Beaudet, 44, and Hamel's brother, Gilles, 44, were held at the St-Sylvain Church in Laval Friday morning.

Beaudet and Jean-Pierre Hamel are survived by their son, eight-year-old Gabriel.

Three small urns decorated with photos of the deceased were carried into the Duvernay-area church during the ceremony.

On Friday night, family and friends of Vronique Binette and Mathieu Goyette, the two other victims, will gather at the Alfred-Dallaire complex on Saint-Martin Blvd. for the young couple's funeral.

Six other people were hurt in the disaster, with injuries ranging from broken bones to internal bleeding. Five of them are recovering in two different Montreal hospitals.

The viaduct started to crumble in the morning of Sept. 30, and local residents reported seeing chunks of cement falling from the underside of the structure. Transport Quebec officials investigated the debris but the span collapsed before any emergency workers intervened.

The Quebec government immediately called for a public inquiry and named former Parti Qubcois premier Pierre Marc Johnson to lead the investigation.

Johnson visited the collapsed overpass for the first time Thursday, accompanied by two engineers named to his inquiry commission.

They have the mandate to determine the cause of the collapse and make recommendations to the government about overpass safety.