The Student Life Education Company

Community mourns three young women killed in Friday night crash

Posted By Don Peat and Pete Fisher

CNEWS

Updated 10 days ago

COLBORNE - They planned to party Friday night, not to die.

But, a trip to a boyfriend’s house by a trio of friends turned fatal as their car turned into the path of a tractor-trailer. Erin Reed, 19, and Robyn Taylor, 20, of Colborne and Kandas Derry, 20, of Baltimore, all died at the scene.

Police described the T-bone collision as "an awful start to the long weekend," but that barely describes the tragic impact on the small town where the girls were known as a tight-knit, friendly and spirited trio.

It is a tragedy compounded by the fact of the three people in the silver Chevrolet Cavalier, only the driver, Ms. Reed, was wearing her seatbelt, police said. Police are continuing to investigate the crash but say it appears alcohol was not a factor.

Cramahe Township and Trent Hills fire departments and numerous ambulances from Northumberland County attended the scene. An air ambulance was called to land in Campbellford, but wasn't needed as all the women were pronounced dead at the scene.

Northumberland OPP Const. Kaitlyn Hill said the truck driver saw the car traveling in front of him around 9:39 p.m. along County Rd. 25 near Warkworth signal and then pull off onto the shoulder. The truck driver pulled to the middle of the road to avoid coming too close to the car just as the car began making a U-turn, Const. Hill said.

That’s when the two collided - the truck hitting the driver’s side of the car, pushing it off to the opposite side of the road before the trailer rolled into a nearby ditch and the front of the truck plowed several meters ahead into the ditch. The road conditions were good, the section of the road was straight and weather was not a factor at the time of the crash, Const. Hill said.

Although they weren't wearing seatbelts, passengers Robyn Taylor and Kandas Derry were not ejected from the car. Police are continuing to investigate the possibility the driver may have been distracted by another passenger. Friends said the girls may have been turning around after missing a turn to a boyfriend’s house.

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On behalf of the Student Life Education Company, we are sorry to hear three young people have died from distracted driving.

When I first read this story it immediately grasped my attention. This is because the three young girls who lost their lives are in the same age range as me. This month in particular we have seen numerous car crashes involving individuals around my age and I have to agree with the police officer in this article when he said the event marked “an awful start to the long weekend."

What is astonishing here is that these females did not wear any seat belts. The saying goes “seat belts save lives”

Distractions can play a big part in leading individuals to loose focus on a certain task. I remember I was studying for a final exam and I was absolutely distracted from studying and when I went into the exam I just didn’t know what to write on the exam and the end result was not great. This can be related to the driver who was distracted from the friend because the driver lost focus from driving and the end result was not great.

When we hear about distractions normally we focus on the use of cell phones, however, conversations in the car with the people around you are proven to be distractions as well.

You have the power to make healthy and responsible decisions around impaired and distracted driving. With such action, we can see an end to tragedies of this sort.