The mothers of two youths killed in a 2023 crash on a rural road near Windsor, N.S., welcome charges against the vehicle’s alleged driver after an agonizing 15-month wait as the police’s investigation GRC continued.

Police said Wednesday they have charged Drake Robert Brown, 22, with 10 offenses related to the Aug. 24, 2023, crash, including two counts of criminal negligence causing death, two counts of dangerous driving causing death and two counts of of impaired driving causing death. .

Brayden Lemmon, 20, and Victoria Cousins, 20, who were passengers in the vehicle, died in the crash. Another passenger was injured but survived, police said. Brown was also injured.

“A lot of things come to mind,” Victoria’s mother, Tracy O’Handley, said in an interview. “Relief that finally someone is being held accountable for what happened to Victoria and Brayden. Fifteen months is a long time.”

Brown is accused in court records of being impaired by alcohol and drugs and driving a vehicle, which police say was a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, at an excessive speed when he drove into collision with a Ford F-150 around 10:50 p.m. ADT on the highway. 14 in Windsor Forks, Nova Scotia

Police said in a news release that Brown was taken to the hospital by ambulance, where he provided police with blood samples that were later tested for alcohol.

The charges come as both a relief and bittersweet for Brayden’s mother, Kyla Loane. She said Brown and her son were friends and that Brown attended Brayden’s celebration of life after his death.

“It’s been a long, very hard week,” she said.

Brayden had a twin brother and two sisters and loved working at Ski Martock, his mother said. Victoria was a Girl Guide leader and had been working at the Tim Hortons near Water Street in Windsor, Nova Scotia, for five years at the time of her death, according to her mother.

“This will never be over,” O’Handley said. “My daughter will never get married, my daughter will never make me a grandmother, my daughter will never go to college and she will never hug me or tell me she loves me again. “

Identity of the alleged driver

Both mothers said they believe it took so long to bring charges because police were trying to prove who was behind the wheel. O’Handley said she didn’t know for sure until last Friday that Brown, and not the other man who survived, was the suspected driver.

“Deep down I feel sorry for the passenger, because over the last 15 months he has also been considered a possible suspect,” O’Handley said.

“So he’s been living for 15 months in a town where people have probably avoided him, and that hurts me.”

Loane said what has been particularly difficult for her is comments from some people that her son made the choice to get into a vehicle driven by an impaired person.

It’s unfair, she said. When a person is impaired by drugs, she said, it may not be apparent, and when Brown arrived to pick up her son that evening, he appeared sober.

“A lot of people have commented to me about this and it really upsets me: ‘Well, your son made the choice to get in that car,'” she said. “He didn’t choose to die.”

Brown was arrested Nov. 8 and charged in connection with the crash. He appeared in Windsor provincial court on Tuesday and was released on bail. He is due back in court on December 10.