The head of MADD Canada says it’s important for key messaging in preventing impaired driving to reach young men, as a 19-year-old man faces a dozen charges, including multiple counts of impaired driving, in a deadly Toronto crash Sunday that claimed the lives of three young siblings.
Toronto Police said on Sunday that a family was “torn apart” after the fatal crash that killed children aged 15, 13 and six and sent three others to hospital.
“If impairment was involved … it’s just really frustrating to keep hearing these stories, to keep hearing about another family who’s been devastated by someone else’s decisions,” Steven Sullivan told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Tuesday.
“Given all the choices we have in society, especially in urban areas now, [as] alternatives to impaired driving … it’s difficult to accept that people are still making these choices.”
Police said the crash took place at around 12:30 a.m., at the eastbound off-ramp near Renforth Drive and Highway 401.
Three children were killed and three other individuals are recovering after a suspected impaired driver crashed into a minivan over the weekend.
A 19-year-old driving a Dodge Caravan was allegedly speeding, heading eastbound, when the driver lost control of the vehicle, police said. The vehicle went over a median and collided with the a Chrysler Pacifica minivan stopped at a traffic light, holding four kids, their mother and a family friend. The children who were killed have been identified as Ramone (court documents spell his name Romon), Jace and Maya Lavina.
The 40-year-old man behind the wheel, a 35-year-old woman and a 10-year-old child are currently in hospital.
As of Tuesday morning, a GoFundMe page that has since been set up to support the Lavina family through its loss has raised more than $121,610.
“Our first thoughts are with the family and the loss of three children and our hopes for a speedy recovery for those who are still in hospital,” Sullivan said.
Police say Ethan Lehouillier, 19, of Georgetown, Ont., was arrested at the scene and is facing 12 charges, including three counts of impaired driving causing death.
Difficult for messaging to reach young men
MADD Canada, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is a Canadian non-profit organization that aims to prevent impaired driving and support victims of it. Sullivan said while there is no “single solution” to impaired driving, a lot of work needs to be done to continue tackling the issue.
“More public awareness, more education, more enforcement. We just have to keep working to make sure that people understand that there are consequences to their actions,” he said.
Metro Morning5:04CEO of MADD Canada talks about the weekend tragedy that resulted in the deaths of three children.
Three kids are dead, and a 19-year-old has been charged with impaired driving causing death, following a crash over the long weekend. We will hear from the CEO of MADD Canada about why the issue of drunk driving continues, despite decades of educational campaigns.
Sullivan added that it’s especially challenging for the messaging to reach young men who are often more prone to risky behaviour.
“In their minds they’re invincible. They’re a little bit selfish. Perhaps they don’t maybe think of long-term consequences. They’re impulsive,” Sullivan said.
“We have some pretty hard hitting messages that I think a lot of people are impacted by, about what can happen if someone drives impaired. I don’t know that [it] resonates with young men. We’ve been trying to shift their message more to showing them positive choices.”
Hopes in anti-impaired driving technology
Sullivan said while all levels of governments could do more to get impaired drivers off roads, and public awareness and education remains key, he hopes that technology that tests driver sobriety can be a “game changer” in preventing impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel.
“As we improve technology and cars, if we adopt anti-impaired driving technology that’s being developed, that will really have a huge impact on deaths and fatalities on our roads,” he said.
MADD has previously pushed the federal government to pass similar legislation to the U.S. after former president Joe Biden signed into law a legal provision requiring automakers to include anti-impaired driving technology in all new cars starting in 2026.
“No impaired driver ever thinks it’s going to be them, but it’s always somebody who ends up paying the price for somebody else’s choices,” Sullivan said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Sunday that the “person responsible for this heinous act needs to face the harshest punishment possible,” in a post on X.
The crash comes nearly a decade after a comparable incident in September 2015 in which another impaired driver caused the deaths of three children and their grandfather.
On Sept. 27, 2015, Daniel Neville-Lake, 9, his brother Harrison, 5, and sister Milly, 2, and Gary Neville, 65, died after the crash in Vaughan, Ont. The children’s grandmother and great-grandmother were also seriously injured.
