Victim in Calgary crash died on her wedding anniversary

A woman killed in a crash on Calgary’s Memorial Drive on the weekend was set to celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary Saturday.

Kanaye Renfrew, 30, was a passenger in a car that nearly split in two after hitting the centre median, before it rolled and slammed into a tree around 3 a.m.

Investigators believe the car was travelling more than 120 kilometres an hour in a 50 km/h zone.

“Kanaye’s a light. She just shone,” said Brenda Dent, Kanaye’s friend. “I always saw her smiling…great mother, great wife. She was just such a great person.”

View image in full screen

Dent said she was devastated by the loss and wonders why anyone would drive so fast.

“Are you showing off? What are you doing? It really makes you think,” she said. “That’s something we’ve said: you have to know what the person has been doing before you get in that car.”

Renfrew was at the Calgary Stampeders football game earlier Saturday with a friend. It’s believed they went out after, and her friend knew the driver of the car. Renfrew was in the front passenger seat when the car crashed.

READ MORE: Fatal crash on Memorial Drive

Her friend, a woman in her 30s, was in the backseat and is clinging to life after being taken to hospital with serious, potentially life-threatening injuries.

The driver, a man in his 30s, is in stable condition. Charges are pending.

“This incident here has cost one family a mother and a wife. Possibly another mother and a wife,” Calgary Police Sgt. Jon James said. “We’re out there every day enforcing speed laws and we try to make the roads safe for everybody, but unfortunately there are some people that choose not to obey them and these are the results.”

Renfrew’s friends are now fundraising to help support those she left behind: two children and her husband.

With files from Global’s Erika Tucker