At a news conference Monday, West Vancouver Police Department spokesman Const. Nicole Braithwaite described the scene on Saturday as “chaotic”, where around 50 people gathered to celebrate a wedding in Keith Road. The driver, a woman in her 60s, was leaving her home, which shares the road with the property where the wedding party was taking place, when she ran into a group of people. Witnesses and first responders attempted to “render lifesaving assistance,” but the two women died at the scene, police said in a statement Monday. Among the seven people in hospital, two are described as suffering “life-changing injuries”. The woman was driving a 2016 Range Rover, Braithwaite said at a news conference after the statement was released. Asked if speed or impairment were factors, police said it was too early to speculate on the cause, but that nothing has been ruled out — including the possibility that the driver experienced a medical episode. “We know what happened, but we’re trying to figure out how and why that happened,” Braithwaite said. “It is important to say at the outset that this is a very tragic incident which has affected several families within and outside our community and our thoughts go out to each and every one of them. This is a difficult time for the families of the victims, the witnesses who were present, the driver involved and all the emergency services that attended this incident,” he said at a press conference on Monday. The driver is among those hospitalized, but police have not commented on her condition or whether she has been spoken to. No decision has yet been made on whether criminal charges will be brought. “In the coming days and weeks we will collect a wealth of evidence that will determine whether charges will be filed and we will provide a later update once we have that information,” Braithwaite said. On Saturday, BC Emergency Health Services reported 10 people were taken to hospital. The West Vancouver Police Department was unable to explain this discrepancy.
