DIDSBURY - Two Didsbury teens killed in a single-vehicle rollover south of Carstairs on Wednesday afternoon were both Didsbury High School students, say officials.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Dec. 27, Didsbury RCMP received a report of a collision on Township Road 292 and Range Road 14 in Mountain View County.
“Upon arrival, emergency responders located two deceased people who have been identified as a 16-year-old male and a 14-year-old female, both residents of Didsbury,” said RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff.
The deceased individuals were not related, he told the Albertan.
Both of the deceased were students at the high school in Didsbury.
“We are deeply saddened,” Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) superintendent Kurt Sacher told the Albertan.
“The students were well connected to the student body of Didsbury High so it will have a significant impact on the students. Our staff will certainly be devastated by the loss.
“I can confirm that they are students from Didsbury High School.”
The school and division will be offering grief and mental health support for any student needing or wanting it, he said.
“Certainly we will have additional resources available as needed from a family school wellness point of view,” he said. “In the meantime we certainly encourage families and students to reach out to the Kids Help Line and mental health supports available in the community.”
He declined to say what grades the students were in.
Asked if the school will be having a ceremony once classes resume in early January, he said, “That’s something the community typically deals with. We don’t typically get into that.”
The vehicle involved was a pickup truck.
While the investigation into the crash continues, speed and alcohol have been ruled out as possible causes, he said.
“Road conditions were fine,” he said.
The investigation will involve several things, he said.
“It’s a single vehicle rollover, so typically we are going to look at the roadway itself and skid marks and so forth to try to determine a speed and what could have led to the rollover itself,” he said.
Neither the male or female appeared to have been wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, he said.
“By investigators at the scene it has been determined that they do not believe that they were wearing their seatbelts,” he said. “It’s super unfortunate that they weren’t wearing them.”
Drivers and passengers should wear seatbelts whenever travelling in motor vehicles, he said.
“What I see personally is that with a lot of these single vehicle rollover collisions, this is where seatbelts can be the most effective,” he said.
