While both siblings were in a car crash caused by an impaired driver, Ryker survived but Leaira did not. This photo was taken the day before the incident. (Supplied)

By Alessia Proietti

National Impaired Driving Prevention Wee

It can happen to anyone: Sylvan Lake and Rocky locals share pain from impaired driving

Mar 23, 2022 | 9:08 AM

Two local families were deeply affected in different ways by similarly painful experiences, following collisions with an impaired driver.

March 20-26, is National Impaired Driving Prevention Week, raising awareness and prevention. Public Safety Canada states that impaired driving includes any transportation vehicle and the influence of alcohol, drugs, fatigue and distraction such as texting.

“We would hope that it would be going down but in the last two years it actually has gone up,” said Brenda Brown, Vice President and Victim Services, MADD Red Deer & District.

According to MADD Canada, approximately 238 impaired driving charges and short-term suspensions are laid daily nationally. Public Safety Canada also reported a 43 per cent increase in drug-impaired driving, such as cannabis, over-the-counter, illegal and prescription medications, from 2019 to 2020.

Ashley Cross of Sylvan Lake was visiting her parents in Rimbey over the long weekend of Aug. 6, 2018 with her three-month-old baby Kast. Her husband at the time, Scott Wilson, was taking her other two children, Ryker, 7, and Leaira, 5, to the airport at roughly 9 p.m. to visit his parents in Ontario. Driving south on Highway 781 less than two miles from town, a drunk driver crossed over into the opposite lane, hitting the vehicle head on.

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Wilson’s vehicle after the collision with an impaired driver. (Supplied)

“People say it won’t happen to them,” said Cross. “I thought that too and thought I had a great family and then, BOOM, like blowing out a candle, they were gone.”

Wilson and Leaira were killed on impact as well as the impaired driver. Ryker, however, was still alive, and kept company by local Scott Slimmon from the Sylvan Lake Fire Department. Calling STARS, the air ambulance flew the 7-year-old to an Edmonton hospital for emergency surgery.

Ryker with Scott Slimmon from the Sylvan Lake Fire Department. Cross said Slimmon is Ryker’s “hero”. (Supplied)

Unknowing if Ryker would survive, he spent five days in ICU and two further weeks in hospital before being released.

Three and a half years later, Cross says she and her son suffer daily, going to therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), survivor’s guilt, and feelings of anger.

“I’ll never forget when I was at the funeral home in Edmonton and saw my little girl for the last time. She was lifeless and cold. My reaction was to hold her and I did. I held her all day until her body was warm again and then I had to let her go,” she said.

Ashley Cross with son Ryker, then-husband Scott Wilson and daughter Leaira. Wilson and the two children were hit by an impaired driver in 2018; only Ryker survived. (Supplied)

The daily suffering is one that Brown says is underestimated.

“With impaired driving we kind of focus on people who have died at the hands of impaired drivers but there are so many that are injured,” she said.

Brock Cullen, of Rocky Mountain House, was also a victim of an impaired driving incident. While both drivers and passengers survived, the effects are still everlasting.

“Even to this day I don’t feel comfortable driving on the highway,” said Cullen.

On May long weekend in 2016, the then 18-year-old was visiting Saskatchewan’s Pike Lake with some friends. The rented campground had a dry weekend rule of no alcohol consumption and a midnight checkout time. In the passenger seat, driving home with a friend, Cullen noticed a driver swerving quickly behind. The impaired driver rear-ended the vehicle, pushing them into the opposite lane. While luckily there were no oncoming vehicles, the impaired driver hit the vehicle from behind a second time.

The vehicle Brock Cullen was in after the collision where he sat as a passenger. (Supplied)

Cullen recalls RCMP saying the impaired driver was four times over the legal drinking limit and estimated his speed between 150 – 170 km/hr.

While Cullen’s friend suffered no injuries, Cullen faced a neck injury and a mild concussion, spending three months in and out of hospital, massage therapy, physiotherapy, and speaking with a therapist.

“My seat belt is the main reason why I’m alive. I got launched forward and ended up smacking my head on the passenger window,” he said. “The amount of force that I had when I came back into my head, from my seat belt locking and throwing me back into my seat, I broke the seat.”

Developing PTSD, sleeping became a battle with frequent nightmares and long-term neck pain having to use towels instead of pillows during the night.

“To me there’s no excuse about drinking and driving. It’s something that’s easily avoidable,” he said. “You can call a friend or family, a cab, Uber, there’s public transportation, there’s so many options that you can do to avoid it, even walk home.”

“If you are near a drunk driver or you are in the presence of a drunk driver and they insist that they’re going to drive home, you need to take away their keys,” said Brown, who lost her daughter Chloe Kaniusis in this way. “If that would have happened, my child would still be alive.”

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MADD Red Deer & District is looking for three new members to continue raising awareness. For more information, call Brown at 1-800-665-6233 ext. 358.