Family of Ont. Girl Hurt in Crash Demands to Know Why They Were Told She Died

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

WEST LINCOLN, Ont. – The family of a 16-year-old girl critically hurt in a car crash in the Niagara region on the weekend is demanding to know why they were told she had died.

Police told Ashley Fearns’ family Saturday night that she had died in a single-vehicle rollover not far from her home in West Lincoln, Ont. But it wasn’t until relatives arrived at the hospital two hours later to identify her that a nurse told them the teen was very much alive.

Fearns is still in the intensive care unit, and her stepfather Wayne Woodham says doctors hope to bring her out of a medically induced coma today.

Woodham says he’s glad Niagara regional police issued a public apology, but he still wants to know why the girl was pronounced dead in the first place.

Two boys, including the 18-year-old driver, were taken to hospital and later released, while a third boy, also 18, is in stable condition.

Police say they have launched an investigation “to determine the source of the miscommunication.”