Father of woman killed by Jeep applauds judge's call to ban extreme driving stunts
The father of an Edmonton university student who was killed while watching a driving stunt in 2013 is confident that a judge's call to ban similar events will help prevent similar deaths.
"We don't want other families to go through the agony that we've gone through and that we'll have to live with for the rest of our lives," John Green said Thursday.
"She was always a happy kid," he said. "We miss her."
Melinda Green, 20, died of a blunt head injury caused when she was hit by an out-of-control Jeep during a charity fundraising event in the Oliver Square parking lot at 118th Street and 104th Avenue on May 18, 2013.
In a fatality inquiry report released Thursday, provincial court Judge Jody Moher recommends that Alberta Highway Traffic Safety Act rules should cover public and private parking lots.
Moher also recommends that extreme driving events should not be allowed in public unless there are barriers between the vehicles and the crowd, and safety marshals are on hand.
New safety rules needed, judge says
She adds that Alberta municipalities should introduce bylaws that allow for third-party oversight of events involving motorized vehicles.
That way, municipalities could mandate and scrutinize a safety plan, impose safety protocols, prescribe minimum insurance coverage limits, and compel police or Emergency Medical Services to be in attendance. Bylaws would also allow a municipality to "potentially prohibit an event entirely," the report says.
John Green attended the fatality inquiry in September. In an interview Thursday he said the report confirmed his worries about a lack of safety planning to protect spectators. He said he is pleased with the judge's recommendations.
"The recommendations of the judge are probably more comprehensive than anything we would have expected," Green said.
He said he was glad to see the judge recommend that the provincial safety act be adjusted to bar stunting and dangerous driving even on private property.
"Having municipalities require third-party oversight of events that the public are invited to is a huge factor as well," Green said. "I think they'll go a long way and prevent other accidents similar to what took my daughter.
"I think the judge's recommendations in themselves set a precedent that municipalities and the province will have to do something, because if they don't and another accident like this happens, then the finger can be pointed at them. Certainly they don't want that. So we're quite confident that considerable effort will be made."
'Extreme driving demonstration'
During the inquiry, witnesses testified that the Jeeps Go Topless show had no safety plan or event insurance and did not require a city permit because it was held on private property.
At the request of a TV news camera operator, an impromptu "extreme driving demonstration" was arranged.
"There were no physical barriers separating the driving demonstration area from the spectators," Moher wrote in her report. "There was no safety plan. There were no safety precautions. There were no safety marshals."
To show off its suspension capabilities, one Jeep drove its front driver's side tire on top of the front passenger side tire of a stationary Jeep. Once on top of the stationary Jeep, the first Jeep's driver shut off the engine and got out, leaving the vehicle in gear. Spectators were invited to take photos.
After the driver re-started his Jeep, things went awry. The man who drove the Jeep that hit and killed Melinda testified that the vehicle jumped forward when he turned the key in the ignition instead of rolling back.
"If the stunt had gone as anticipated, he should have carefully backed his front driver's side tire off of the front passenger's side tire of the stationary Jeep," Moher wrote.
'Sudden acceleration' event
Instead it "dismounted forwards, lurching ahead, bounced hard and was rapidly propelled forward, travelling approximately 25 feet" before colliding with another parked Jeep and then rolling over onto its side.
Melinda Green was one of at least 20 people who had been standing in front of or near the parked vehicle that was hit by the out-of-control Jeep. After the collision she was lying on the asphalt, not breathing and without a pulse.
A paramedic and two nurses, all spectators at the event, rushed to help. She was taken by EMS to the Royal Alexandra Hospital where she died of her injuries.
No charges were ever laid against the Jeep's driver, who had been adamant afterwards that there had been a mechanical defect or other problem with his vehicle, Moher says in the report.
The Jeep was found to be free of mechanical or electrical defect. Edmonton police investigators concluded it had experienced "high and erratic accelerator pedal engagement" in the seconds before the crash. A collision investigator who testified described it as a "sudden acceleration" event.
Travis.Mcewan@cbc.ca
@Travismcewancbc
