SUNDRE - The province’s Seniors, Community and Social Services minister and Sundre MLA will be getting help with his ministry duties as he focuses on his son’s recovery from injuries sustained in a vehicle rollover Friday that saw him airlifted to a Calgary hospital.
“On December 1, our youngest children (twins) Austin and Chyanne were involved in a motor vehicle accident. We are relieved that our daughter Chyanne sustained no major injuries and is recovering. However, our son Austin is currently in critical but stable condition,” Jason Nixon and his wife Tiffany said in a joint statement issued Monday morning.
The statement added that Nixon and his family’s commitment to fulfilling his mandates as MLA for Rimbey- Rocky Mountain House-Sundre and minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services remains unshaken.
“Austin, and all of our children, have always supported this work and very much want to see it continue. At this time, though, we ask for understanding as Jason focuses on his most important job as “Dad” and prioritizes our children and our family,” the statement read.
“As we focus on Austin’s recovery, Dan Williams, the minister of Mental Health and Addictions, will be supporting Jason in his role in the ministry of Seniors, Community, and Social Services.”
The Sundre Fire Department was dispatched to the scene of the single vehicle rollover west of Highway 760 near the former Bergen Store in the area of Range Road 54 and Township Road 320 in Mountain View County just after 8 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 1, said Sgt. Randy Poon, the Sundre RCMP detachment’s commander.
Fire Chief Ross Clews told the Albertan his department rolled out to the scene with the command unit as well as a rescue truck in a response that from start to finish took about an hour and a half.
The two occupants – a male and a female – were both “local to the area,” said Clews, adding when asked that they were adolescents in their late teens.
The male remained trapped in the pickup when responders arrived at the scene, he said.
“The vehicle was on its side and we had to remove the roof to bring the patient out safely,” he said, adding the other occupant had managed to self-extricate after the crash.
“The one patient got out of the vehicle and then was checked out by EMS,” he said.
“We had the ground ambulance there looking after the primary patient and then the secondary (patient) was taken by personal vehicle to the Sundre hospital.”
