Mounties allege a teenage girl was drunk behind the wheel and have charged her in connection with the death of 17-year-old Jennifer-Lynn Clements, who died in a horrific highway crash.
Clements was killed after the black Pontiac Sunfire she was a passenger in left Highway 814, slid through a ditch, and smashed through two fences before colliding with a cow and a tree in a farmer’s field near Wetaskiwin on the night of May 22.
She and three other teens were leaving a party in Leduc. Police have now charged the driver with her death.
The 17-year-old driver, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, refused to provide a blood sample to police after she was transported to hospital, forcing officers to obtain a warrant.
Police said after an investigation by the RCMP Criminal Collision Investigation Team and a forensic lab, it was determined her blood alcohol level was over the legal limit.
The teen was charged earlier this month with impaired driving causing death, refusing to comply to a blood demand, impaired driving with over 80 milligrams of alcohol causing death and dangerous driving causing death.
She is expected to appear in Wetaskiwin Provincial Court on Oct. 7.
Wetaskiwin RCMP Const. Scott Mercer confirmed this was the only alcohol-related death on the county’s highways seen over the summer.
All other occupants of the vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash.
Clements would have turned 18 on Aug. 6.
