A mother is on a mission to save lives two months after her daughter was killed in a head-on collision outside Canterbury, N.B.
Kim DeMerchant’s grandson Tanner was in the backseat of the vehicle and his mother Krissi was behind the wheel when she collided head-on with another vehicle on June 20.
Tanner suffered two broken femurs and was eventually rushed to hospital in Halifax. Krissi did not survive the crash.
“They had to bring the Jaws of Life to get my daughter out of the vehicle and it took them, well, I was gone with the baby in the ambulance and they still weren’t here,” says DeMerchant.
Canterbury’s volunteer fire department does not have a Jaws of Life device and DeMerchant still wonders if her daughter might have survived the crash if there had been one nearby.
“Here, response time is a big one,” says firefighter Adam Fish. “Like Kim said, our nearest jaws around here is 20 minutes away in Woodstock, and that’s with good road conditions.”
“It might have saved her life, it might not, but we’ll never know because it wasn’t here,” says DeMerchant.
Now she is working to ensure no one in the area has to wonder the same thing again.
DeMerchant has started an online fundraising campaign in the hopes of raising $25,000 to purchase Jaws of Life for the Canterbury area. More than $2,500 has been raised online, and she is also organizing a ball tournament, community yard sale and village road toll.
“If I wasn’t doing something I’d be sitting home and looking at pictures and looking at videos,” she says. “I think this is helping.”
DeMerchant also plans to help two local fire departments that recently sustained significant damage. The Nackawic Fire Department was damaged when an alleged impaired driver struck the building, while the Millville Fire Department was destroyed by arson.
“I’m hoping that after we’ve reached our goal, we can continue to do events and disperse money in small communities for fire departments that need it.”
She hopes purchasing a Jaws of Life device for her community will not only save lives, but also keep her daughter’s memory alive.
“I think I’m going to get a plaque made and have her name on it and put it on the Jaws of Life and she’ll always be there. She’ll always be helping somebody.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore