A Surrey woman has been charged in connection with the crash that killed popular 22-year-old university student Kassandra Kaulius during the Stanley Cup playoffs last May.
Natasha Leigh Warren, 34, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death, impaired driving causing death, causing an accident resulting in death and failure to stop at an accident causing bodily harm.
The charges were sworn late Tuesday in B.C. provincial court. Police say Warren has yet to be arrested.
Kaulius's family says that they remain devastated by the loss.
"You have a home, you have family there, but there's somebody missing and it's very hard to wrap our heads around the fact that she's still never coming home," her mother Markita told CTV News.
The family has been lobbying for Canada to introduce vehicular manslaughter charges under the Criminal Code, allowing for harsher punishments in similar cases. To visit Markita Kaulius's "Families for Justice" Facebook page, click here.
Kaulius, a star softball player who also coached children, was driving a red BMW on May 3, 2011 when she was broadsided by a Precision Restoration company van on 64th Avenue.
Witnesses say the van had sped through a red light and that the driver, who appeared to be intoxicated, got out and tried to run away after the crash. Police allegedly found her lying face down in a wooded area near the scene shortly after and arrested her.
Kaulius was heading home from a game when her car was struck.
Surrey RCMP Sgt. Drew Grainger said police are happy to see the recommended charges against Warren approved.
"Our investigators are pleased that their dedication and hard work has come to the fruition of charge approval," Grainger said in a statement.
According to a police search warrant filed three days after the crash, Warren provided two samples that night, and her blood-alcohol level allegedly registered at between .16 and .14. Warren's common-law husband told police that the couple was watching a hockey game before the crash and he alleged that his wife had consumed a bottle-and-a-half of wine before leaving home in her company van.
Warren's licence was revoked at the scene of the crash, but given back after just a 24-hour roadside suspension. After widespread public outcry, her driving privileges were suspended for 12 months.
She was also fired from her job at Precision Restoration after her employer learned that she was driving the company vehicle at the time of the collision.
Warren is scheduled to appear in court in May.
With files from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
