A 17-year-old girl was killed, while five others survived, in a car crash last weekend on Highway 20 near Williams Lake.
Mounties were called to a single-car crash on the highway, about 15 kilometres west of the city, around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday. A GMC pickup truck had left the road and rolled onto its roof near the Sheep Creek Bridge.
The girl, later identified as Autumn Weir, was pronounced dead at the scene, and four others were taken to hospital with serious or critical injuries. The sixth teen in the vehicle escaped with minor injuries.
“The investigation continues. However, police believe alcohol may be involved,” RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson said in a news release on Monday.
Counsellors were made available at the area schools.
Read More: Fatal crash west of Williams Lake closes Highway 20
Weir’s family said she was a beautiful, caring and well-loved person.
“She had just graduated in June, and gotten a job. She was just beginning her adult life,” her father, Dean Weir, said. “She would have turned 18 on Dec. 12.”
On Sunday, the family went to visit the memorial that had been set up at the crash site.
“When we got there, there were a ton of kids already at the site,” Dean said. “Everyone was crying, but they gave us our space. I put up a cross, and cleaned up the mess that was left there and left my haywire and pliers there for other people to put flowers up.”
Her family said people have been reaching out from all over the community — from her school, her friends, her jobs.
“She was just up here on Tuesday for dinner and she’d put a post up on Facebook last week that said she was so thankful for her friends and family,” Dean said.
“It was almost like she was saying goodbye without knowing it.”
- with a file from Angie Mindus
Read More: Memorial grows at scene of fatal crash near Williams Lake on Highway 20
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