Alberta man, daughter are Highway 63 crash victims

A third family devastated by a deadly head-on crash Friday on Highway 63 in northeastern Alberta includes a father and his daughter.

Calgary-area resident Dan Sennett and his 11-year-old daughter Faith Kondusky-Sennett died when their northbound pickup crashed head-on into another pickup carrying six people. The identity of the third person in their truck, who also died, is still not known.

A celebration of Faith's life will be held next week at St. Catherines, Ont., where the family is originally from, said family friend and pastor Anton Szymychalski.

"That was Faith's outlook on everything," said Szymychalski, who's known the family for more than 10 years and gave Faith her first communion. "She wouldn't want people to be sad and crying.

"She'd always try and find a way to make them feel better," he said. "The challenge will be to try and make the service hopeful, even when it's a tragic time."

Faith was a bubbly child and always happy, Szymychalski said.

"We have coffee after mass on Sundays and she was always helpful, trying to clean up for the older folks," he said. "If someone was sad she'd try to do something funny to make them happy.

"She was just really outgoing and a wonderful, wonderful little girl."

Four people in the southbound vehicle also died.

Courtney Penney, who was six-months pregnant, and her husband Mark, 28, were passengers in a pickup truck belonging to their friends, Shannon and Trena Wheaton, who were also travelling with their two sons, Timothy, 3, and Ben, 2. Mark Penney and Timothy Wheaton were the only survivors of the crash.

The fiery crash has rekindled calls to improve safety on the notorious highway that connects Fort McMurray and the oilsands with Edmonton.

An online petition to twin the highway now has more 13,000 signatures, and a protest has been planned for Saturday in Fort McMurray.

"People are just so sick and tired of hearing the excuses from the government," said Nicole Auger, one of the organizers.

"People are scared to drive on Highway 63 and the politicians and the Ministry of Transportation don't understand that because they don't drive on Highway 63."

RCMP in Fort McMurray warned drivers on Tuesday about the need to obey the 100 km/h speed limit along the road. 

On Saturday, a day after the crash, officers stopped a 20-year-old man from Fort McMurray who was driving 184 km/h.