‘I screamed ‘Stop!’: woman watched in horror as truck ran over daughter
Calgary mom Samantha Toulon watched in horror as a pickup truck ran over and killed her daughter in a Bowness intersection, court heard Wednesday.
Toulon, 41, said she and her family — husband Craig and their six children, including daughter Avayah (Avi) — were returning home on May 6, 2016, from an outing to the river when they were crossing 47th Avenue at 79th Street N.W.
Toulon said her eldest child, 13-year-old Carlo, had cleared the intersection while her middle children — aged nine, eight, seven and 4 1/2-year-old Avi — were still crossing when she saw a truck approach.
“I then screamed ‘Stop!’ and as I screamed ‘Stop!’ the truck didn’t slow down,” she testified.
“At that point, my eight-yearold screamed: ‘Avi, run!’” Toulon told provincial court Judge Josh Hawkes.
“Avayah turned, stopped, put her hands in the air and was struck,” she said. “I saw my daughter go under the front wheel and under the second wheel, be dragged under … She went straight under the front wheel.”
Calgarian Tanis Lambert is on trial, charged with careless driving under the Traffic Safety Act.
At the start of the trial, Crown prosecutor Rose Greenwood withdrew a charge of driving without insurance, saying defence lawyer Alain Hepner had established his client was insured at the time.
Toulon said four of her children, including Avayah, were on the roadway when her daughter was hit and testified the Ford F-150 had crossed into the eastbound lane while heading west on 47th Avenue.
Toulon said after the collision her husband let go of their dog and raced to their daughter, while she called 911.
Under cross-examination, Hepner asked Toulon if it was possible the truck stopped and then started moving again before the collision.
“If I suggest to you it stopped in the middle of the intersection, what would you say to that?” the lawyer asked.
“I’d say you’re lying,” Toulon said.
But neighbour Steven Stredulinsky said he watched the vehicle stop before it started to move again.
Stredulinsky, who has since moved to Edmonton, told Greenwood he could see a large group of kids on the roadway.
“They came to a stop in the intersection,” he said. “They came to a stop roughly three-quarters of the way through the intersection.
“I could see a few of the kids over the top of the hood of the truck,” he said, adding he didn’t see the little girl, but witnessed the collision.
“The truck started moving again and that’s when the truck made kind of a weird movement — the front popped up,” he said. “As I got onto the road … I saw the back of the truck go up and down.”
Stredulinsky told Hepner he believed the pickup had stopped to let the children cross before moving forward again.
“That was my impression. It had stopped to let people go,” Stredulinsky said.
He told Hawkes the incident was traumatic for him to watch.
“Probably one of the worst moments of my life so far,” he said.
Under the traffic act, the maximum punishment for careless driving is a $2,000 fine.
Lambert’s trial is continuing.
I saw my daughter go under the front wheel and under the second wheel, be dragged under … She went straight under the front wheel.