"I knew whatever we were going to find wasn't going to be nice," he said, recalling how he headed home to call brother and tow-service operator Alan, and the police.
As emergency services started gathering resources in Napier, over 60km away and an hour from the scene, the brothers McVicar gathered ropes and torches, and radioed news of the discovery, a wrecked housebus in the riverbed, having plunged down on to the river bank and into the edge of the stream - 50m below the centre span of the bridge.
Over the next day it would emerge eight people had been killed in one of the worst road crashes in New Zealand history.
Killed in the Mohaka crash were Hinerehu June Samuels, 32, and 15-month-old son Dwayne Symon Moon; partners Matthew James Moses, 28, and Una Paea (Dar) Hounuku, 34, and 1-year-old daughter Eden Theresa Joe Seymour Moses; partners Leslie Stuart (Les) Avery, 27, and Enid Kahurangi Allen, 27, and Owen Neil Heremia, 32.
There was a survivor, a white bull terrier-cross named Cruz, understood to have been owned by bus owner Mark Devine, who had been driving only a short while earlier, until it was stopped by police near Te Pohue and he, and his keys, were taken to Bay View Police station for drink-driving, which he later admitted in court.
Police revealed they had stopped the bus about 7.25pm.
It was conjectured those left with the vehicle, a 1948 Ford which had been part of the era of Railways buses, daily carriers of the baby-boomers, had decided to get going again on a weekend drinking with friends around the Te Pohue and Te Haroto areas - marking the first birthday of a child and the next intended stop to visit a family who had just lost a child.
The time of the crash was put at about 8.45pm, although Mr McVicar does not discount it might have been a little earlier.
Others less familiar with the area may have seen the hole in the bridge before he and his family did but might not have realised it had only just happened.
It was thought the bus, which had a raised accommodation platform built into the rear several years earlier, was hot-wired by one of the group and driven. Whoever was at the wheel was unlikely to have had any experience with such a vehicle, which appeared to have become out-of control as it headed north and down an incline towards the bridge.
Marks of almost 60m revealed it had "yawled" along the bridge, before the rear swung around, and the bus crashed through the barrier.
Initial fears were that another three people had been on board but as the Monday morning dawned the picture was clearer. While six of the victims were found in the first 48 hours, two, including the young boy, were missing for several weeks.
In the days afterwards, homes in Maraenui, Tamatea and in Hospital Tce were used for funeral services, and Wayne Moon, who had lost his son and partner in the crash, told Napier newspaper the Daily Telegraph it was another indication of a need for a marae in Napier.
Doc Emery, a teacher at Richmond School, noted similar issues a few months earlier when the community farewelled 15-year-old Gaylene Kiripatea, who died suddenly on June 2 that year. By the end of the year Mr Emery and others had formed a committee, which became the foundation of the Maraenui Marae Establishment Committee. It ultimately built Pukemokimoki Marae, which opened 10 years later.
The tragedy was one of an alarming number of multiple-death crashes on roads on the east coast of the North Island, from East Cape to Wairarapa.
Of what are thought to be the worst 13 crashes (six deaths or more) eight have happened in the region or on the Napier-Taupo highway.
As for Cruz, he appeared little worse for wear at the time, but, cared for by the SPCA, he had a spine operation a few days after the crash.
