Mothers of young people killed in 2023 Hants County crash react to charges

The mothers of two young people killed in a 2023 crash along a rural road near Windsor, N.S., are welcoming the charges laid against the alleged driver of the vehicle after an agonizing 15-month wait as the RCMP investigation stretched on.

Police said Wednesday they have charged Drake Robert Brown, 22, with 10 offences 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 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.

"Lots of stuff is going through my mind," Victoria's mother, Tracy O'Handley, said in an interview. "Relief that finally somebody is 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 of driving a vehicle, which police said was a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, at an excessive speed when it collided with a Ford F-150 at around 10:50 p.m. AT on Highway 14 in Windsor Forks, N.S.

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

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

"It's been a very hard, long week," she said.

Brayden had a twin brother and two sisters, and enjoyed working at Ski Martock, his mother said. Victoria was a Girl Guides leader and had worked for five years at the Tim Hortons off Water Street in Windsor, N.S., at the time of her death, according to her mother.

"It's never going to be over," O'Handley said. "My daughter is never going to get married, my daughter's never going to make me a grandmother, my daughter's never going to go to university, and she's never going to hug me or say she loves me again."

Identity of alleged driver

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

"In my heart, I do feel sorry for the passenger because for the last 15 months he's been looked at like a possible suspect as well," O'Handley said. 

"So he's living in a town for the last 15 months where people have probably been shunning him, and that I feel bad for."

Loane said what's been particularly hard for her is the comments from some people who say her son made a choice to get into a vehicle driven by someone who was impaired.

That's unfair, she said. When someone is impaired by drugs, she said, it may not be apparent, and when Brown arrived to pick her son up that night he appeared sober.

"I have a lot of people comment about that to me and it really upsets me — 'Well, your son made that choice to get in that car,'" she said. "He didn't choose to die."

Brown was arrested Nov. 8 and charged in the crash. He appeared in provincial court in Windsor on Tuesday and was released on bail. He is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 10.