ELIZABETH MÉTIS SETTLEMENT – This summer marks the two-year anniversary of when Violet Wells lost her only daughter, Priscilla Wells.
While so much of Aug. 23, 2020, remains overwhelmingly vivid for Wells, the sequence of other events that took place that day remain somewhat of a blur.
On the summer evening in 2020, Priscilla Wells was driving a ride-on lawnmower at about 7:30 p.m. on the shoulder of Bates Lake Road in Elizabeth Métis Settlement when she was struck from behind by a car.
Priscilla was pronounced deceased at the scene. She was 49 years old and a mother of a 22-year-old son.
While the family continues to grieve the tragic loss of their daughter, mother and sister, they also continue to fight for justice in her death.
Wells told Lakeland This Week, she is facing an ongoing battle when it comes to how the preliminary investigation was conducted by RCMP and with the insurance company representing the owner of the vehicle that struck her daughter.
“They're just not cooperating,” she said. According to Wells, the insurance company is arguing mutual fault in the incident because at the time of the collision Priscilla was not wearing reflective gear and the lawnmower that she was operating did not have a flag.
To date, the insurance company representing the vehicle’s owner is only offering to pay out 50 per cent of the claim to the Wells family, even though the person operating the vehicle has since been convicted of offences contrary to the Traffic Safety Act.
“I want justice. I’m not looking for revenge because I need to have peace as well,” said Wells. “Money is never ever going to bring her back. But I think in order to have peace and justice, something should be paid in lieu of her death. I know (Priscilla) would feel the same way.”
Tragedy strikes
On Aug. 23, 2020, Priscilla stopped by her mother’s home to pick up the lawnmower.
Priscilla would regularly take the mower to cut her own grass, then return to cut her mother's lawn and drop off the equipment.
That Sunday evening was not out of the usual in any way. Priscilla took the same trails and the same roads between the two properties as she always did.
“And she was halfway from her brother's driveway to my driveway when she got hit,” recounted Wells.
She describes with clear detail the moment when her life irreversibly changed – although she didn't know it at the time.
“I was sitting on my back deck waiting for her. I could hear her coming and all of a sudden, I heard crash, bang, kaboom, and I thought ‘Oh my goodness, either my mother-in-law or a dog (had been hit),’ and I turned my head to look and here this car had come flying over the road and over my driveway and went into the ditch on the opposite side.”
Wells hurried off her deck and headed toward the road. “As I was coming, I could hear two girls hollering at me ‘Call the ambulance, call the police’.”
“I'm on my cell phone calling 911, not paying attention to anything other than them, which they are on the right side of me... I turned to the left and there was my daughter lying there,” said Wells, taking a deep breath. "I went over there and that's where I stayed for four hours laying with her.”
When Wells first heard the crash, it had never crossed her mind that Priscilla was involved.
“It just blew my mind when I turned left and saw her lying there and I went to her right away and I moved her, and I called her, and I had this glimmer of hope that she was still alive. And I kept checking on her, but she was smashed.”
The vehicle that struck Priscilla was sitting nose first in the ditch with the driver and passenger side doors left wide open, she recalled. Wells could hear more crying, the arrival of police and EMS, and a crowd that was growing, but she stayed with her daughter the whole time.
Investigation
Wells and her family members carry a lot of anger and frustration with how law enforcement handled the initial investigation and how the justice system handled the proceedings following the deadly incident.
“They did not even blood test (the driver of the vehicle),” said Wells, pointing out that Priscilla, who was the victim of the incident had been screened for blood and alcohol during the autopsy.
The failure to conduct a drug and alcohol screening of the vehicle’s driver was a mistake considering the incident resulted in a loss of life, says Wells.
Jeralyn Wells, Priscilla’s sister-in-law, has been working with the family's lawyer to push law enforcement to release police reports and files regarding the investigation.
In March of 2022, nearly a year and a half after Priscilla’s death, RCMP released a second press release acknowledging that incorrect information had been released following the fatal collision.
RCMP initially stated that the car and lawnmower had collided in a head-on manner.
RELATED STORY: Fatal collision involving lawnmower operator and motorist leads to conviction
“As a result of the report released by the RCMP Collision Reconstructionist, it was later determined that this was not the case, and the vehicles were in fact travelling in the same direction,” states an RCMP press release from March 23, 2022.
A further analysis by the reconstructionist determined that the operator of the lawnmower was travelling westbound on the shoulder of the westbound lane when she was struck from behind.
“The Cold Lake RCMP would like to apologize to the family and friends of the deceased, as well as the community of Elizabeth Métis Settlement, who were impacted by the release of inaccurate information,” continued the press release from RCMP.
Following the incident, Wells and other family members met with the Crown prosecutor and were hoping the Crown would pursue criminal code charges in the case of Priscilla’s death.
In the end, Lauren Gladue, the driver of the car involved in the collision, was convicted of offences contrary to the Traffic Safety Act, confirmed a statement released by RCMP in March. Gladue was convicted of driving without a valid licence and driving without due care and attention.
The conviction also came with $1,068 to be paid in fines.
“She just got a slap on the hand,” Wells said. “I would like to find a way I can proceed with this case further.”
In recent months, more reports have been released to the family’s lawyer by the RCMP’s governing authority based in Ottawa.
Going through the files with her lawyers, Wells says there are now more unanswered questions.
The family continues to ask why drug and alcohol screenings weren’t conducted on the driver immediately following the incident, why it took police so long to acknowledge the failures in the initial investigation, and why the charges laid were so mild considering the fatal outcome.
“Really, someone's life is worth $800 bucks in fines? It’s sickening,” Jeralyn told Lakeland This Week. “My one take away from this horrible nightmare is that the system is broken.”
A life lost too soon
“Priscilla was a very smart woman,” said Wells, describing her daughter's best qualities. “She had a good sense of humour. She always laughed, she always joked, and she loved life. She loved people.”
Priscilla had worked for the City of Cold Lake for 13 years in the finance department and worked for Elizabeth Métis Settlement in finance for over five years as well.
“She just took life in stride, and she had a lot of friends and I think the funeral would explain that,” Wells added.
Over 300 people attended Priscilla’s funeral. A hundred people attended the indoor service, with another 200 people taking part in the ceremony from outside due to the COVID-19 public health measures implemented at the time.
“Everybody you could think of was there that knew her because she loved life... She graduated high school in Bonnyville with her brother, so they knew half of the town of Bonnyville at one point in time.”
Since Priscilla’s passing, Wells has been on her own journey of grief and anger, mixed with a fight for justice in relation to her daughter’s death.
“It's horrible, to a point where I was going through PTSD counselling for almost a year. I'm just trying to live day by day... I still feel, and probably a piece of me always will feel like a big part of me is missing.”
Marking a tragedy
Not far from Wells’ front door is a memorial site that has been erected by Priscilla’s uncle and brother.
“I go there every day, if not every other day, and I just go sit and think and I go and envision things, and I sit out there and have a good cry, and I sit and get mad, and I just don't know what to think. Sometimes I feel totally numb,” expressed Wells.
She says the reason the memorial site was made is so the community can remember what happened there.
“All I can say is the after effect of it and how I feel and how I'm dealing with it... I have a lot of mixed emotions that I have to cope and deal with on a daily basis, and that’s not easy,” Wells said.
Eventually it is Wells' plan to move away, so she does not have to relive the scene over again.
Following the release of this article, comments were provided to LakelandTODAY from Cold Lake Detachment Commander Sgt. Ryan Howrish in relation to the Aug. 23, 2020, incident.
Howrish confirmed that a drug and alcohol screening was not requested of the operator of the motor vehicle because there was no reasonable suspicion of impairment.
“There was no indication that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the collision and therefore (the investigator had) no legal authority to demand samples of breath or blood,” he stated.
While police can now demand a mandatory alcohol screening from a driver that has been lawfully pulled over, the detachment commander said that this measure cannot be applied by a responding officer that has been called to an incident for an investigation.
If an investigator suspects the involvement of drugs or alcohol in an incident, they can seek a warrant to obtain a blood sample for a toxicology screening.
*Addition included on Sept. 7, 2022.
