York regional police have charged a 23-year-old man with impaired driving in an August crash in Newmarket that left a five-year-old girl dead.
Police said officers responded to call about a four-vehicle crash in the area of Davis Drive west of Keele Street at around 7:15 a.m. on Aug. 4.
Officers determined that a silver Volvo with two occupants collided with a grey Ford Taurus with one occupant. The Volvo then struck a grey Chevrolet Cobalt with one occupant inside before it collided head-on with a black Honda Civic with a family of five.
They said the family members, including an 11-year-old boy, a five-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Police said the girl died of her injuries five days later.
Family members have identified her as Lux Peyton Gomez.
Her aunt has set up a GoFundMe account since the accident.
The driver of the Volvo, 23-year-old Kamau Davis-Locke was transported to hospital with serious injuries. Police charged him with 12 offences, including impaired driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death, on Monday.
“What takes quite a bit of time in these cases are toxicology reports, so that information has come back and investigators have now laid some significant impaired criminal charges here,” said Const. Andy Pattenden.
“How many more senseless tragedies need to occur on our roads before something changes?”
Police said Davis-Locke’s passenger suffered minor injuries, as well as the driver of the Chevrolet. The driver of the Ford, a 62-year-old woman, was not injured.
Davis-Locke has been released on bail. He is scheduled to appear in an Ontario court on Jan. 24, 2019.
York police recently announced that they will be publicly naming alleged impaired drivers in a bid to deter people from getting behind the wheel after drinking or using drugs.
So far in 2018, five people have died as a result of impaired driving collisions in York Region.
– With files from Caryn Lieberman