A woman was sent to hospital and an Edmonton man is facing drunk-driving charges after leaving the bar in Fawcett and driving off the road.
Westlock RCMP Cpl. Lee Grieco-Savoy said police got a call on Aug. 31 at 2:13 a.m. about a single-vehicle collision on 49 Avenue and Range Road 13A.
“The vehicle was going southbound on 49 Avenue and failed to make the left curve over the train tracks and went straight into the trees,” she said. “It was airborne into the trees.”
The driver, a 29-year-old Edmonton man, was not injured in the crash but his passenger, a 33-year-old woman from Nelson, B.C., suffered significant but non-life-threatening injuries.
“(The injuries) were definitely required to be treated at the hospital,” Grieco-Savoy said. “She had very large gashes that she required stitches for.”
She said it was extremely lucky for the vehicle’s two occupants that it didn’t flip over and land on its roof, but it did spin 180 degrees with the rear end crashing into the trees. The two had apparently just left the bar.
The Edmonton man has been charged with impaired driving causing bodily harm, driving with a blood alcohol level over .08 causing bodily harm and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. His first court appearance will be Oct. 1 in Westlock Provincial Court.
Before police or an ambulance could respond to the scene, Grieco-Savoy said a passersby had stopped to administer first aid, which although the injuries weren’t life threatening, was certainly helpful.
“The first aid is obviously important in any case where there are injuries,” she said. “If folks had not arrived immediately, her injuries weren’t so significant she would have died, but I’m confident the first aid she received would have provided her immediate relief.”
Grieco-Savoy stressed the important of having a working knowledge of first aid, regardless of your circumstances.
“If you have kids, you need first aid to deal with your kids. If you work in a business involving commercial vehicles, or all farmers should have their first aid,” she said. “It’s always good to have first aid, especially in a rural community like Westlock.
Lending a crucial hand in preventing the collision from ending tragically were Tristen Fauque and Michiel Hoogewoonink.
The two young men were at the Fawcett bar that night, hanging out with the vehicle’s occupants. At around 2 a.m. when they were leaving the bar, they saw the vehicle “peel out” from the parking lot.
“He was nine sheets to the wind,” Hoogewoonink said of the driver.
Shortly after they realized something was wrong.
“We heard trees mowed down and glass shattered,” he said.
Fauque said what happened next was virtually instinctual.
“Me, Mike and Kash McCotter, we bolted to the car, ran down the street there,” he said. “We saw the hazards flashing in the ditch.”
They discovered female occupant had suffered a serious cut to her forearm, Hoogewoonink said.
“She was bleeding out a lot and couldn’t keep conscious,” he said.
They used the driver’s shirt to try to stop the bleeding, an action they say nurses told them saved the woman’s life.
When emergency services arrived, Fauque and Hoogewoonink stayed on scene helping any way they could, and even went with the woman to the hospital because no one could contact her family.
Looking back on it a week later, they said there was no question they had to help out. It was just the thing to do in the circumstances.
