Jillian McLeod, like hundreds of Brampton residents, says she felt compelled to see the growing memorial for 36-year-old Karolina Ciasullo and her three young children after they died in a devastating crash.
Ciasullo and her daughters, six-year-old Klara, four-year-old Lilianna, and one-year-old Mila, died in a multi-vehicle crash on Thursday at the corner of Countryside Drive and Torbram Road.
McLeod said she didn’t know the family, but like many felt she had to do something to show her support and grief for Ciasullo’s husband, who lost his wife and three little girls in an instant.
“Another family cannot go through this. It’s just devastating. I can’t imagine what Michael went through. He lost his entire family. It has to stop,” said an emotional McLeod.
A mother to a grown child herself, McLeod said she has lost two friends to impaired drivers over the years and is outraged by lenient sentences she’s heard about in the news.
“I’m tired of it. I’m doing my own part. I hope in some small way I can help them. I want the sentences to be a lot stronger for them. Right now, it’s a slap on the wrist for anyone who gets convicted of these offences,” she said.
McLeod decided after the quadruple fatal crash that took the lives of the Ciasullo family to start an online petition on change.org demanding stricter laws and harsher penalties for those convicted of impaired, stunt and reckless driving.
In the case of the Ciasullo family, charges have yet to be laid.
The Special Investigations Unit has only said a Peel Regional Police officer was travelling westbound on Countryside Drive when they observed an Infiniti vehicle travelling eastbound prior to the crash.
Witnesses reported the driver of the Infiniti ran a red light which then broadsided the Ciasullo’s family van.
Video obtained by Global News just prior to the crash appeared to show the Infiniti travelling at a high rate of speed and witnesses reported that a police cruiser followed it.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown recently said the driver of the Infiniti had a suspended license for multiple driving offences and called him “reckless.”
He also said that the suspect was driving with license plates on that didn’t match his car and tweeted out dashcam video which appeared to show the same blue Infiniti in Caledon two days before the fatal crash.
In the video, the man behind the wheel appeared to be passed out before the Infiniti collided with a flower planter as concerned citizens tried to stop him. Moments later, the driver put the car in reverse and drove off. The OPP was later called and obtained the dashcam video.
Meanwhile, McLeod’s petition had more than 14,000 signatures as of Monday evening.
She hopes Premier Doug Ford will support her cause, aware that many of the laws that need changing are federal.
“My goal is to reach 25,000 signatures and that we can present it to the attorney general, to Doug Ford, to anyone who will listen to help make a difference,” said McLeod.
“I’m also hoping the prime minister will get involved and talk to his ministers and make a change.”
- Man in critical condition after setting himself on fire near NYC courthouse
- Arrest made after police issue emergency alert about ‘dangerous man’ in Bible Hill, N.S.
- 3-year-old Elijah Vue still missing: Man pleads not guilty to child neglect
- Closing arguments presented in Michael Gordon Jackson abduction case
Comments