Innisfail Crash

RCMP officer helpless to stop wrong-way vehicle

Cochrane man facing 14 charges

 Image of Sunday's fatal crash near Innisfail, Alta.

EDMONTON - An off-duty RCMP officer was the first person to report the white Range Rover driving the wrong way down the busy QE II Highway in the dark on Sunday night.

When the Calgary officer, driving in a civilian car, saw the vehicle, she immediately called 911 and followed the Range Rover from the correct lane, helpless as it sped toward oncoming traffic.

Nine other calls flooded in about the Range Rover, and four RCMP officers sped to the area in marked police vehicles to try to find and stop the driver.

But eight minutes after the first call to 911 — and after at least one close call with an oncoming vehicle — the Range Rover plowed head-on into a van with five people inside. Four of them, two 35-year-old men, a 39-year-old woman and a 52-year-old woman died at the scene. A 28-year-old woman was seriously injured and remains in hospital.

Innisfail RCMP Const. Doug Dewar said the off-duty officer saw the crash and did what she could to help.

“She was the first person at the scene. She checked on the deceased, checked on the accused.”

The driver of the Range Rover, 29-year-old Tyler James Stevens, is facing a total of 14 charges of impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, criminal negligence causing death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, and failing to provide a breath sample.

Stevens remains in RCMP custody and is slated to have a bail hearing at Red Deer court Friday afternoon. He received minor injuries in the crash.

RCMP have asked that the four deceased not be identified until Thursday to allow officials to notify family in the Philippines.

All five people in the vehicle are from the Philippines and had come to Alberta to work. Friends say one of the men had been in Canada for eight years. The others arrived more recently.

Jun Angeles, publisher of the Alberta Filipino Journal and past president of the Council of Edmonton Filipino Associations, said the five friends were heading to the American border to take care of an immigration matter. He said the injured woman is the one who had to make the trip and the other four decided to accompany her.

Three of the dead and the injured woman worked in housekeeping at the Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel.

Hotel manager Kelly McCauley described them as “wonderful, caring, happy people.”

He said the hotel was helping the workers obtain landed immigrant status and that they were working toward bringing their families to Canada.

“It’s a very devastating loss. It’s horrific.”

McCauley said colleagues and friends gathered at the injured woman’s hospital bedside and grief counsellors were at the hotel Tuesday. He said management and staff will focus on supporting the injured woman and helping the families of the deceased, including raising money for them.

He said Coast Hotels has already pledged to match any money raised.

“We’ve got (their) families to look after, and we’ve just started the process,” McCauley said. “It’s devastating for all of us.”

The collision happened in the southbound lane of Highway 2 at about 11:10 p.m.

Dewar said Innisfail RCMP get two or three calls a week about vehicles going the wrong way down the QE II, but the drivers usually realize quickly and turn around.

“It’s very seldom that you actually get someone going that far the wrong way on the highway. Usually, people clue in when there are vehicles coming at them head-on, flashing lights and honking their horns.”

He said Stevens has no criminal record and never had dealings with the RCMP.