A newly-released BC Coroners Service report points to alcohol and speed as the “contributing factors” in a single-vehicle crash that killed three Kelowna Secondary School students.
The fatal accident happened just minutes after midnight on May 26, 2021, and claimed the lives of Katelin Bevan, 18, Ryan Thomson, 18, and Samara Haverko, 17.
The three students, who were set to graduate from KSS just days after the crash, were in a 2009 Honda Civic driven by Bevan at the time.
The report says the vehicle was driving northbound on Gordon Drive “at a high rate of speed” before it became airborne around the bridge over Mission Creek.
It explains that the car landed and slid sideways, up and over the raised median, before striking a lamppost.
“The vehicle was sheared in half, with each half coming to a rest upside down,” coroner Dean Campbell writes in the report.
All three students were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the report, toxicology findings confirmed Bevan’s blood-alcohol to be 0.121, which is well above the legal limit.
“A high rate of vehicle speed and the blood alcohol concentration of the driver were contributing factors,” Campbell explains.
“The polished asphalt road was dry and in good repair and did not play a role in this incident. It was dark at the time of the incident with artificial lighting provided by regularly spaced streetlights.”
The students’ deaths were classified as accidental and Campbell made no recommendations.
