Ten months after a popular young B.C. softball player was killed in a collision, police are recommending charges of drunk and dangerous driving against the other driver in the crash.
Kassandra Kaulius, 22, died after her vehicle was broadsided by a van in Surrey on May 3, 2011. She was on her way home from a softball game at the time.
Witnesses at the scene told investigators that the van was speeding when it ran through a red light. The 34-year-old woman driving the van allegedly got out of the vehicle and tried to run away after the crash, but was found by a bystander and apprehended by police a short distance away in a wooded area.
Mounties said Friday that they have now recommended four criminal charges against the Surrey woman.
"Those charges include dangerous driving causing death, impaired driving causing death, operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration over 80 milligrams causing death and also failing to remain at the scene of an accident," RCMP Sgt. Drew Grainger told CTV News.
Police say the report they've submitted to Crown counsel is more than 2,000 pages long, and they expect it will take prosecutors weeks to review it and make a decision on charges.
"This has been a very complicated investigation. These investigations are very similar to murder investigation these days in terms of their complexity," Grainger said.
While police gathered the necessary evidence to recommend charges, Kaulius's family has been gathering names on a petition aiming for mandatory minimum sentences for impaired drivers who cause fatal crashes.
Mother Markita Kaulius says she wants to see another change, too.
"We would also like to see the government make changes to the Criminal Code of Canada to redefine the offence of impaired driving causing death to vehicular manslaughter," she said.
"I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my daughter or tell her how much I love her. Someone took that away from me. and I have to live with that everyday."
The petition has gathered more than 2,000 signatures so far from people throughout the Lower Mainland. To visit Markita Kaulius's "Families for Justice" Facebook page, click here.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro