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Airdrie woman killed in B.C. collision 'could always make a person smile'

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The friends of two young Airdrie women involved in a fatal crash on a B.C. highway are rallying around the victim’s families through social media.

Friends of Baylea Stewart, killed in a collision near Field, B.C., on Friday have started a GoFundMe campaign, collecting donations to help her family with funeral expenses and “whatever other financial obligations they may have during this devastating time,” the page reads.

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The crowdfunding page has been shared nearly 1,000 times and by Sunday afternoon had collected more than $8,400 of a $10,000 goal in less than 24 hours.

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“Baylea was the sweetest person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. She was so beautiful both inside and out,” Everest McNichol posted to the donation page on Saturday, adding “I will never forget her.”

Amy Robertson, a spokeswoman with B.C. Emergency Health Service, said paramedics were called to an area of the Trans-Canada Highway near the Alberta-B.C. boundary, about two kilometres west of Field, just after midnight on Friday.

A GoFundMe page has identified Kira Morison-McNeil as the driver of a vehicle injured in a fatal collision with a semi-truck near Field, B.C., on Friday, Jan. 4, 2018.
A GoFundMe page has identified Kira Morison-McNeil as the driver of a vehicle injured in a fatal collision with a semi-truck near Field, B.C., on Friday, Jan. 4, 2018. retFIJJO3kgyBHBVEKno/RGGexFu1s1m3KRAjb986xpjRcUrWvFp+ri1b9npJ/tOJyeJeZaOs24R+5buvGBezQ==

Robertson said there were multiple 911 calls made about the incident and emergency crews from both B.C. and Alberta responded.

Haley Richardson also offered her condolences to the Stewart family online. And while she said the two weren’t close, Richardson said the young woman “could always make a person smile and was so nice.”

Stewart was a passenger in the vehicle and was pronounced dead on the scene, while the driver and her friend, Kira Morison-McNeil, was injured in the crash and taken to hospital by an ambulance out of Banff.

The highway was closed for hours as crews worked to clear the scene.

Morison-McNeil was in the process of moving back to Airdrie from B.C. at the time of the crash and the car “was packed full of her belongings,” the page reads.

A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help pay for Morison-McNeil’s recovery and “many financial hurdles” facing her and her family.

RRumbolt@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @RCRumbolt

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