SYDNEY: Port of Sydney marketing and development manager Bernadette MacNeil was seriously injured in a three-vehicle crash on Friday morning that killed her 90-year-old mother. Port of Sydney CEO Marlene Usher said she visited MacNeil in the hospital on Sunday. MacNeil, 63, is in an induced coma.“She’s still in serious condition, but she’s stable,” Usher said Sunday night. “They expect a full recovery, so it’s going to be a long haul. She has a lot of broken bones, but it’s amazing how she’s improved over the past couple of days.”
RCMP responded to the three-vehicle crash on Highway 4 in Howie Centre on Friday. Usher said MacNeil, a Northside East Bay resident, was driving her mother, Christie MacInnis of Big Pond, back home from the Cape Breton Regional Hospital when the crash occurred. MacInnis was pronounced dead at the scene. “Her son called and told us that Bernadette was in an accident,” said Usher. “Initially, we were shocked, but we weren’t aware of the seriousness of it until a little bit later when we went up and we were talking to her husband and son and we realized she was in very serious condition. It was a huge shock.” The incident happened just before 10:30 a.m. Occupants of the other vehicles were not injured. The highway was closed for several hours while an RCMP collision analyst attended the scene. The highway reopened before 8:30 p.m. Friday night.
MacNeil began working at Tourism Cape Breton in 1999, and joined the Sydney Ports Corp. the following year, which became the Port of Sydney Development Corp. in 2015. In June, she was named to the new board of directors for the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia. “On behalf of our municipality’s council and staff, we offer our deepest condolences to Bernadette and her family. Our thoughts today are with Bernadette as she recovers in hospital,” CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke said in a statement Sunday. “As her friends and colleagues, we pray for her recovery and well-being. At this time, we respectfully ask for privacy for Bernadette and her family as they heal from this tragedy.
