“It was sheer panic,” said Debbie Boswell, mother of Taylor Ramoutar.
The 33-year-old woman was driving her 35-year-old husband, Jonathan Ramoutar, to the airport in the early morning on July 21 — a routine they follow every Monday when Jonathan flies to northern Alberta, where he works in the province’s oil industry.
“Taylor normally comes home after to sleep, but she never came home,” Boswell said. “I ran upstairs and googled ‘accidents in the northeast’ — and I saw what I thought was her car.”
“EMS, firefighters, police — they all said nobody is going to survive that, (but) they had someone looking over her that day.”
‘They had someone looking over them that day,’ Debbie Boswell said of the crash that nearly killed her 33-year-old daughter, Taylor Ramoutar, and 35-year-old son-in-law, Jonathan Ramoutar.
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According to police, the couple was hit head-on by a Ford F-150 pickup truck, driven by a 25-year-old.
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Investigators said he first struck and killed a pedestrian before his pickup plowed — head-on — into the young couple’s Jeep.
The force of the collision was so great that both vehicles ended up on their roof and rescue crews had to use extraction equipment to remove Taylor and Jonathan from their Jeep.
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Pedestrian dead, 3 others injured after collision in northeast Calgary
The couple were rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, where they still remain.
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“(Taylor) had 25 breaks in both of her arms and legs that had to be pinned or rodded or plated,” Boswell said. “She’s in a lot of pain.”
The force of the head-on crash was so great that emergency crews had to use extraction equipment to remove the critically injured couple from their vehicle.
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Taylor’s sister, Morgan Burdock, who lives in Fort St. John, B.C., rushed to Calgary to be by her side.
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“I just yelled out, ‘Taylor,’” her sister said.
“She just didn’t look like herself. She was so swollen and had the tube in her mouth and black eye and blood.
“It’s terrifying — nobody should see a loved one go through that.”
The family said Jonathan suffered a long list of internal injuries and has spent 10 days in the intensive care unit at Foothills Hospital — and one point, they thought they might lose him.
“The doctor came to us and said, ‘It’s not good, we can’t guarantee tonight and it’s minute-by-minute.’ There was 15 of us, all family and friends, and we just all got into a big group hug and we all prayed and said how much we loved them,” Burdock said. “We just have had to keep doing that.
“There’s a lot to celebrate because we thankfully have our family members with us, but (they’re) still not out of the woods.”
Family and friends of the injured couple — seen here on their wedding day — have set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help with what is expected to be a long road to recovery.
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The family says the couple are both scientists who love to work out and to volunteer.
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They have a large and loving group of friends who have also set up a GoFundMe campaign that has already raised $60,000.
The couple, who were scheduled to have a walk-through of their brand-new home in a couple of weeks, spent their wedding anniversary in the hospital — one floor separating them.
“It makes me emotional when they will finally get to see each other for the first time,” Burdock said.
“They are just perfect, perfect together — everything I could have wanted for my little sister and more,” she said, wiping away tears.
Police said charges are pending against the 25-year-old driver of the truck.
Calgary police say charges are pending against the driver of the pickup truck who was driving the wrong way when he collided head-on with the couple’s Jeep.
Michael King / Global News
While the couple’s family members have a lot of questions — and anger — for now, they are focused on their loved ones and said they can’t stop thinking about the family of the woman who lost her life that day.
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“Our heart breaks for that family and what they had to endure,” Boswell said.
“Justice needs to be served here for the poor pedestrian — and for Jonathan and Taylor.”
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