The 11-year-old boy had just agreed to switch seats into another vehicle as two families travelled through B.C.’s Rocky Mountains – a move that would save his life, but also give him an eyewitness view of his whole family dying.
That was the gut-wrenching story tearing through Edmonton’s tight-knit Pakistani immigrant community Monday night, as they absorbed details of a horrific head-on crash that killed five members of one family, one member of a second family, and made one boy an orphan.
The crash, which happened at 11:25 a.m. Sunday about 20 kilometres east of Golden, took place when a 1998 Dodge Caravan travelling west on Highway 1 drifted across the centre line into the oncoming path of a large motorhome, said RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.
Police say four of the six victims in the Dodge minivan were not wearing seatbelts, and all six died at the scene. The driver and the passenger of the motorhome suffered non-life threatening injuries. Investigators have ruled out speed and alcohol as crash causes, and based on the extensive hours logged by the 47-year-old driver of the Dodge minivan, they suspect driver fatigue or inattention may be a factor, Moskaluk said.
Moskaluk said the two families left Edmonton about 1 a.m. Sunday, proceeding in a two-vehicle convoy en route to Abbotsford. The second vehicle was not involved in the crash, but was close enough to witness the carnage, he said. Police have listed the ages of the victims but not their names.
In Edmonton, community members identified the victims as Arshad Mahmood, his wife Shakila, their two daughters ages 15 and 13, and Mahmood’s father, who had just recently arrived on a visit from Pakistan.
A 14-year-old female who was originally travelling in the second vehicle was the sixth victim. The families had stopped for breakfast in Lake Louise, and at that point, the 14-year-old girl asked to travel with the two sisters in the first vehicle, and Mahmood’s 11-year-old son, believed to be named Asher, had agreed, a family friend said.
News of the crash started filtering back to Edmonton Sunday afternoon, said community member Maryum Shahid.
Shahid said of all the families in Edmonton’s Pakistani community, she was closest to the Mahmoods, who were “always laughing constantly, and so warm.”
“You just have to ask and they will be there to help,” Shahid said. “All the families know them.”
A number of families had gathered at Shahid’s home Monday night to mourn the six deaths.
“Everyone is so sad right now,” Shahid said. “We’re just praying for [Asher] because he’s lost everything.”
Shahid said the Mahmoods had just immigrated to Edmonton about two years ago, following her own family, who had immigrated several years before.
Another member of the community, Tariq Mahmood, who is not related to the victim family, said “they are just so nice.”
Moskaluk said Sunday’s death-toll was so terrible, that he can’t recall a similar vehicle tragedy.
“I got the initial reports of six fatalities and I was envisioning multiple vehicles involved,” he said. “I was very shocked to hear we had just a two-vehicle head-on [collision.]”
Moskaluk said police are offering victim services to the 11-year-old boy orphaned in the crash.
“The death is so sudden and unexpected,” he said. “He has lost his complete immediate family in one fell swoop.”
As the impact of the crash continues to resonate, RCMP are “pleading with the public to consider their daily driving habits and practices, along with their preparation for and return travels [for the] remainder of the summer holiday season,” said Moskaluk.
A full inspection of the Dodge minivan will be completed this week, in order to determine if a mechanical failure or the running condition of the vehicle was a contributing factor, Moskaluk said. Investigators have completed the crash scene examination on a straight segment of highway, and noted that the roadway at the time of the collision was bare and dry on a recently paved surface, he said.
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