Snowy conditions believed to be one of the factors in a deadly crash involving a family of five on Sunday could have been worse if two passing motorists hadn’t taken heroic actions.
Kunthea Altvater was travelling with her husband Richard and their three children along Highway 3, just south of Fernie, to their home in Coaldale, Alberta when their Chevrolet minivan left the roadway and plunged into the Elk River.
A passing driver and his girlfriend saw the car upside down in the river and rushed to the family’s help. They managed to pull every member of the family out of the van before the ambulances arrived.
“I’m very impressed with what these two people did,” says Sgt. Don Erichsen, RCMP.
“We’re talking sub-zero water temperatures, swift moving water, they put themselves in the line of danger to do what they did. That’s commendable for anyone.”
The four-year-old son was revived at the scene by RCMP and a passing doctor, and was, along with his brother, rushed to Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Eight-year-old Rachelle and her father were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
CPR was also performed on Kunthea, but she was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
A witness at the accident, Mike Greenwood says “there were two ambulances there and they were just bringing them up the bank on stretchers, and they were doing CPR on them. And then those two ambulances left and three more arrived.”
The two boys are still in hospital and in critical condition.
“Their actions are particularly honour-worthy because if they had not taken the action that they took… this would have been far more tragic,” says Sgt. Erichsen.
~ with files from Randene Neill
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