More than 250 friends, family and community members gathered at Mitford Pond on the evening of Dec. 8 to pay their respects to Brandon Thomas, the popular 17-year-old Cochrane High School (CHS) Grade 11 student who was killed Dec. 6.
“He’s not going to come home and I’m not going to hug him again because somebody made a bad decision...” said Brandon’s devastated mother, Kim Thomas, overwhelmed by the support of the Cochrane community.
Cochrane RCMP responded to a call of collision on Highway 22, three kilometres south of Cochrane just after 6 p.m.
It was determined that a 2006 Chevrolet pickup truck was driving south in the northbound lane of the highway, surrounded by heavy traffic.
The southbound pickup swiped two oncoming vehicles in the northbound lane.
As a result, one of the vehicles attempted to avoid the pickup, subsequently rolling three times in the ditch. The southbound pickup then collided head on with a northbound Subaru Impreza.
The driver of the Subaru was 17-year-old Brandon Thomas, who was trapped in the vehicle and needed to be extracted by Cochrane Fire and EMS.
He died at the scene.
The driver of the rolled vehicle was a 23-year-old female from Calgary who was transported to a hospital in Calgary, treated and later released.
The driver of the other sideswiped vehicle, a 31-year-old male from Cochrane, was not injured.
The driver of the Chevy pickup, 22-year-old Ryan Jordan Gibson of Calgary, was arrested on scene and later charged with six offences: impaired driving causing death; driving while over .08 causing death; dangerous driving causing death; impaired driving causing bodily harm; driving while over .08 causing bodily harm; and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
He is scheduled to make his first appearance in Cochrane Provincial Court on Dec. 18 at 9:30 a.m.
The community and Brandon’s fellow CHS students and teachers remain shaken over the untimely tragedy.
“He was a positive, upbeat young man who was thriving at the school and who was experiencing great success at school and at his Registered Apprenticeship Program (in mechanics),” said CHS principal, Susan Poole on Dec. 11.
The school has grief counselling services available for any students who are struggling at coping with the loss.
Funeral services will be held today, Dec. 12, at Cochrane Alliance Church at 2 p.m.
