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Mom, children ‘traumatized’ after South Surrey collision

“The mustang did a burnout on 18 Ave, and just gassed it and hit that Hyundai,” a witness said.
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A young mother, her child and two 11-year-old children are ‘completely traumatized’ after a two-vehicle collision on 156 Street and 18 Avenue Tuesday morning. (Contributed photo)

Although there were no serious injuries, a young mother feels like she’s “been hit by a truck” after the car she was driving was T-boned near a crosswalk in South Surrey Tuesday.

Police say the woman’s silver Hyundai got hit by a black Mustang at 156 Street and 18 Avenue.

“My biggest concern was the three children I had with me, one of whom has a concussion, it was horrible but blessed everyone survived it,” Elena Baxevanidis, who was driving the Hyundai, wrote on Facebook.

Surrey RCMP say that as of Thursday morning, there have been no arrests or charges laid in relation to the collision. They say they have received “conflicting information” regarding the collision, and are asking witnesses to contact the Surrey detachment if they have information on the driving behaviour of the drivers leading up to the incident.

Area resident Andrew Doran-Bowing told Peace Arch News he watched the Mustang drive down 18 Avenue away from 156 Street and pull into a cul-de-sac. He said he heard the driver screech his tires, “do something cool with all their friends in the car,” then turn back on to 18 Avenue.

When the Mustang – on 18 Avenue and heading towards 156 Street – reached the intersection, Doran-Bowing said, it stopped “for a second, then he goes. It just sounded like he stepped on the gas. The tires were squealing and he just zoomed right into that grey Hyundai. It’s almost like he didn’t even look.”

Haley Kusumoto, who lives nearby, wrote on the PAN website that she witnessed the collision, and that “people do need to slow down.”

“The mustang did a burnout on 18 Ave, and just gassed it and hit that Hyundai coming down 156 Street,” she wrote.

Told Thursday of the witness accounts, Baxevanidis said that the news “makes me feel sick.”

She said she was driving her child and two South Meridian Elementary Grade 6 classmates back from a school field trip at Sandcastle Lanes.

She said all four of them are “completely traumatized” by the incident.

“One of them had a concussion, she was right behind me and her airbag went off. She’s the one most physically hurt. My daughter was in the middle and she’s more traumatized mentally… The little one behind me couldn’t open the door, so my daughter undid her seatbelt and they had to kick the door open,” she told PAN.

Baxevanidis said the students were removed from the scene by bystanders, but she was stuck in her vehicle.

“(My daughter) was just traumatized that she was separated. She couldn’t get her momma out and the car started to smoke. Now she’s dealing with flashbacks and the fear of not knowing if her mum is OK.”

Once both vehicles came to a rest – Baxevanidis’s on the 156 Street sidewalk and the Mustang in the middle of 18 Avenue – Doran-Bowing said he counted at least four young men exiting the Mustang.

All passengers in the Mustang “split” before the police arrived, he added.



aaron.hinks@peacearchnews.com

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