A Prince Albert area couple has been shaken to the core after their 11-year-old son was struck and killed by a suspected impaired driver on Saturday.
Jared Bear was riding his bike with friends when he was hit by a vehicle on the Muskoday First Nation, located southeast of Prince Albert.
"He just brought happiness to all of us. He'd hug us. He'd kiss us. It didn’t matter who was around," Jared’s mother Raelene Adam said Monday, crying as she clutched her son’s favorite T-shirt and blanket.
Adam and Jared's father, Vince Bear, dropped their son off with friends on Saturday afternoon. That evening, Adam received a call that her son had been hit while out on his bike.
"I thought we would go there and he would be sitting on the side of the road with a little bit of bumps and bruises. But I saw my baby in the ditch and he was covered in blood."
RCMP said the incident occurred on Highway 3, near the Muskoday Bridge. A group of five kids were riding eastbound when a truck, travelling west, struck two boys as well as a dog that belonged to a member of the group.
The driver of the truck exited his lane of travel and went off the shoulder, police said. A few of the kids were able to get out of the way.
Jared was rushed to hospital in Prince Albert but died as a result of his injuries.
"He's gone now,” Adam said. “I had to go and make funeral arrangements today and everything. When I am supposed to be planning a birthday party... I had to plan a funeral for my baby."
The second boy who was hit only suffered minor injuries. He was not taken to hospital, RCMP said. The dog, a Husky, died.
Gordon Morris Crain, 51, appeared Monday in Prince Albert provincial court charged with impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death. He made a second appearance Tuesday to face four additional charges including criminal negligence causing death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, and impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
