People can no longer turn a blind eye, says Darren Keeler, the organizer of a Red Deer rally that will urge harsher sentences for fatal drunk driving.
After losing his son, Colton Keeler, 19, to an alleged impaired driving incident west of Red Deer in the early morning hours of March 31, Darren and his family couldn’t sit idle.
“We have received tremendous support from the community over the last weeks in planning and launching a rally,” Darren said.
The grieving father explained that the rally has been designed around the idea that the law needs to be changed in order for stiffer impaired driving causing death sentences. He thinks sentences should increase to five years, instead of the current two or three.
A group of five teenagers were heading east on Hwy 11A at 3:30 a.m. when their car broke down near Range Road 281, about 3-km west of Red Deer’s city limits.
As Colton and his friends pushed the broken-down car off the road, they were struck by a another vehicle. Colton was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another Red Deer teenager Tyson Vanderzwaag, 17, passed away six days later in the intensive care unit at Foothills Hospital in Calgary. Tyson passed away from injuries he sustained in the same collision, only three days after his 18th birthday.
The death of the second teenager was an additional cloud of grief as many gathered the very next morning to bid farewell to his friend Colton.
RCMP charged April Gail Beauclair, 29, of Lacombe on six counts in connection to the crash, including impaired driving causing death.
Darren and his family are now planning a rally, called “Stop the Carnage.” It will be held at Red Deer City Hall Park on 49 Avenue starting at 10 a.m. on June 8.
There are approximately 370 people signed up for the rally, but Darren hopes that number will increase to 1,000.
“To show our leaders we care and we mean business,” he said.
For more information about the rally, visit www.facebook.com/dntdrinkndrive.
jjones@www.reddeeradvocate.com