*Scenarios depicted in the following article and photos were part of a student training exercise at Lethbridge College. No one was actually injured or involved in the described accident Saturday morning*
One person is dead and four are injured after a three vehicle collision in the Trades Mall parking lot Saturday morning.
42 year-old James Roger Willis of Sacramento, California faces charges of impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily injury and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.
Willis’ SUV, containing two other occupants, jumped a median and struck a car containing three occupants in the parking lot waiting for a parking space to open up.
The car then hit a motorcycle after being propelled forward after the first impact.
Willis then fled from the scene.
Kara Kulak was in the back seat of the car that was struck by the impaired driver.
“We were just going shopping; we were waiting for a parking spot,” she said. “That guy came out of nowhere and smashed into us then he ran away.”
Willis was later arrested back at his room in the Tellalodge Hotel.
Austin Watson, a witness to the accident said the SUV was behaving erratically before the collision.
“I saw the gold SUV kind of swerving, losing control and he jumped across the median that separates the parking lot from the road,” he said.
Watson added that both he and the motorcyclist attempted to stop Willis from fleeing the scene.
Office Kayla Gervais with the Campus Mock Police Department said the motorcyclist suffered severe but non life threatening injures and identified the deceased as a passenger in the blue car.
Names of the victims will not be released until next of kin have been notified.
Willis will remain in police custody until his appearance in provincial court on Monday at 10 am in Lethbridge.
Additional chargers may be laid as the investigation continues.
EMS attend to an injured motorcyclist after a collision in the parking lot of the Trades Mall on Saturday Apr. 2.
Kara Kulak is attended to by EMS personel after a collision the parking lot of the Trades Mall on Saturday Apr. 2.
*Scenarios depicted in the article and photos were part of a student training exercise at Lethbridge College. No one was actually injured or involved in the described accident Saturday morning*
