EDITOR’S NOTE: This post has been updated to say the woman who died was 20 years old. The original police release said the victim was 21 but a family friend later confirmed to Global News that the correct age is 20.
One person is dead, two are in critical condition and one has serious non-life-threatening injuries after a two-vehicle collision on the Capilano Bridge in Edmonton early Sunday morning.
At around 3 a.m. on June 25, police were informed of a collision on the Capilano Bridge and Wayne Gretzky Drive.
Police said a pickup truck was travelling north in the southbound lanes at high speeds. It narrowly missed an EPS vehicle and hit an SUV that was behind the police car.
A passenger in the SUV, a 20-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 31-year-old driver of the SUV was taken to hospital, as was the 23-year-old driver of the truck. Both were in critical condition, according to police.
A passenger of the truck, a 21-year-old woman, was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said speed and impairment are believed to be factors in the collision.
Lynda McCullough had an intense reaction when she read about the crash. Her daughter Jennifer was killed in a crash when she was just 21 years old. Jennifer’s car was hit by an impaired driver, McCullough said.
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“I feel so badly because I know what those people are going to be going through. Nobody in the world wants to go through that — to lose a child, to lose anybody, in such a useless, stupid manner. It’s really, really maddening and it makes me angry,” McCullough said.
“It’s not just people who die,” she added. “People get injured and live that way for the rest of their lives with that devastating injury… brain injured, paraplegic, quadriplegic — and that is horrible too.”
McCullough started volunteering with MADD shortly after her daughter’s death.
“That was my way of coping — to immediately jump in.
“What’s it going to take for people to stop doing this?
“There’s so much education. There are so many ways for people to get home. Saying you didn’t know you were going to drink is not an excuse,” McCullough said. “If you’re going out, you should always have a Plan B, a Plan C.”
Fundraiser underway for victim’s family
Melissa Rolston, a family friend, said while the family does not wish to speak publicly yet, she can confirm that the 20-year-old woman who died is Jayda Mitchell.
Rolston and Shannon Mitchell, Jayda’s mother, have started a GoFundMe page to raise money to help the family.
According to Rolston, Jayda was on a trip visiting a friend when the crash happened and now her family is trying to raise enough money to bring her home to Toronto and have a funeral.
On the GoFundMe page, Jayda is described as an amazing young spirit that was gone too soon. On the page, Jayda’s mother says her daughter was a “beacon of light in (her) life.”
“Her vibrant spirit, her infectious laughter, and her compassionate heart touched the lives of all who knew her. She possessed a zest for life that was unparalleled, and her dreams and aspirations filled her days with boundless hope. Jayda was a remarkable young woman, radiating kindness and love wherever she went.”