Family of QEW crash victim urges driver responsible to come forward

“It’s just unreal. It’s just unreal,” says a tearful Brandy Sommer Wood.

Her cousin, photography student Nicole Turcotte died Saturday after the car she was a passenger in was involved in a five-car pileup on the QEW.

“She was just 22 years old and her life was taken from her because someone had road rage,” she said.

As she spoke to CityNews, Wood tightly clutched the shoes and socks Turcotte was wearing the night of the crash, admitting she went so far as to smell the socks, desperate for a reminder of Nicole.

Turcotte was killed in what police are calling an alleged act of road rage. At around 10 p.m. on Saturday night, police say a car travelling eastbound on the QEW in Mississauga suddenly moved into the left lane in front of a pack of cars and hit the brakes — causing five vehicles to slam into one another.

A pickup truck at the back of the pack of cars slammed into the Toyota Turcotte was a passenger in. Her boyfriend, who was behind the wheel, was relatively unhurt. His sister, who was a passenger in the back of the car, remains in critical condition in hospital.

A total of seven people were injured in the crash. Police say the driver of the car who allegedly started the crash then drove away, fleeing the scene without a scratch.

“Just turn yourself in,” Wood says. “How can you live with knowing that you’ve done something like this? Even if it was just an incident of anger, you’ve changed so many people’s lives.”

The OPP says the vehicle of interest is a four-door silver or beige Honda Civic with an Ontario licence plate starting with CEAT. It was last seen exiting the QEW at The West Mall between Mississauga and Toronto.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt says a brake check, or the act of hitting a vehicle’s brakes as a signal to following cars, is illegal.

“That — we would consider aggressive driving,” Schmidt said. “It is illegal to interfere with traffic in that way. It’s something that we would consider criminal if drivers are doing this intentionally.”

OPP say they’re also looking for the driver of a transport truck who was travelling eastbound on the QEW who may have witnessed the entire incident.

Turcotte, originally from Niagara Falls, was living in Toronto with her boyfriend while she attended Humber College for photography.

Her family says Turcotte was driven, dedicated to volunteering and was always eager to try new things.

“She did so much with her life in such a short time,” Wood says. “She could have done that much more if she had more time.”