6-year-old killed in fatal collision after family forced to flee Merritt, B.C. due to flooding

A mother from Merritt is reeling from the death of her six-year-old daughter following a fatal highway crash, which happened as the displaced family was travelling to find a safe haven.

Ember Young, six, died on Thursday, Nov. 18 when the vehicle she was in with her mother and sister collided with a utility vehicle along Highway 97C, south of Logan Lake in B.C.'s Southern Interior.

"She was a sweet loveable girl and it's very unfortunate that this had to happen to her because she was just the happiest, sweetest little thing," said her mother Jordan Goetz Young.

The tragedy illustrates the far reaching impacts of the catastrophic flooding in B.C., which has resulted in the loss of life, destroyed highways, farmers' fields covered in water and displacement of thousands of people.

Goetz Young, 32, was already facing tragedy following the death of her estranged husband in August from a drug overdose. She had moved to Merritt from Langley with her two daughters, Ember, and Hailey, five, to stay with her parents and start life anew.

But on Nov. 15 her life was upended again when she and her daughters were forced to flee Merritt, like all residents, due to the failure of the town's water treatment system.

They went to Kamloops and stayed in a hotel, but the cost of the accommodation forced her to make a new plan, which was to go to Lower Nicola, northwest of Merrit and stay with a friend.

"I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to afford [the hotel], so that's what heavily influenced my decision to go back home," she said.

Driving Highway 5 from Kamloops to Merritt was something Goetz Young had regularly done, but on Nov. 18 the roadway was closed at Merritt, so to get to Lower Nicola she was forced to take Highway 97C, through Logan Lake.

It was just south of that town where she lost control of the vehicle she was in, spun into the oncoming lane and collided with a truck.

"I felt the back end of the car kind of slipping and I felt myself going off the road and I started to freak out because I saw there was a huge vehicle in the other lane," she said. "I just remember feeling this huge force and I don't ... I got knocked out from the air bag."

When she regained consciousness, Goetz Young looked in the back seat where her two children were and saw that Ember was bleeding and unconscious.

"I started to absolutely freak out," she said. "I just remember screaming and begging for help and a bunch of people came and helped me."