WATCH ABOVE: Two people are dead and a man has been charged following an early morning crash in the city’s core Saturday. In total, four people were injured and police believe alcohol and high speeds are to blame. Tracy Nagai reports.
CALGARY – Two people are dead after a multi-vehicle collision in the Beltline early Saturday morning.
EMS paramedics responded to the collision just before 2 a.m. at Macleod Trail and 12 Avenue southeast.
Police said a Toyota Prius taxi, Cadillac Escalade and Honda Civic were the vehicles involved in the crash, and alcohol may have been a factor.
46-year-old taxi driver Amritpal Kharbanda and the cab’s passenger, 25-year-old Jillian Lavallee of Calgary were killed.
Lavallee succumbed to her injuries later in hospital Saturday afternoon.
Kharbanda leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
The driver of the Escalade has been identified as 20-year-old Ali Alajandro Montoya.
Montoya has been charged in connection with the deadly crash in the Beltline. More charges are expected.
Emergency crews worked quickly to pull people from the crumpled wreckage.
When police arrived, the 20-year-old man driving the Escalade was arrested.
“The driver of escalade was arrested for impaired driving, as the officers were able to form the grounds that he was impaired,” Sgt. David DenTandt said.
Police say the Escalade ran a red light at high speed and hit the taxi on the passenger side.
The Honda Civic, then hit the Escalade from behind.
The taxi slammed into a lamp post, the impact was so hard that the lamp post ripped off at the base.
Witness Tom Irwin was close by when the crash happened.
“It was so loud. I don’t know how a car made that noise but it sounded like a gun shot,” Irwin said.
The noise was the sound of the Escalade slamming into a car.
“They had to get the jaws of life out to cut open the taxi. Yeah, it was just crazy,” Irwin said.
The Three men in the Escalade, all in their twenties, suffered minor injuries.
The 64-year-old man driving the Civic was taken to the Foothills Hospital with serious injuries.
It took investigators several hours to clear the scene.
For witnesses, the images will remain for some time.
Montoya has been charged with impaired driving causing death and two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm but police say they expect charges to be upgraded in light of Lavallee’s death.
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