Alberta hockey players killed in highway crash remembered as ‘bright lights’

Members of the Jasper U18 Bearcats hockey team will lace up their skates for a game next Friday for the first time since two of their teammates were killed in a crash on a highway in Alberta earlier this week.

Kayla Peacock, 17, and Danica Hills, 18, were killed Monday night when their pickup truck collided with a semi-trailer on Highway 16, about 10 kilometres east of the Jasper townsite. Peacock was driving the pickup truck and Hills was a passenger. Both were declared dead at the scene, according to RCMP. 

In a statement to CBC News, Peacock’s cousin, Jayden Calvert, said the two girls from Hinton were best friends who “did everything together.”

The teenagers dreamed of living together in Edmonton after graduating high school this spring, Calvert shared. Hills was accepted into the University of Alberta’s faculty of engineering and Peacock had plans to attend MC College to become a hairstylist.

Both Peacock and Hills were members of the Jasper U18 Bearcats hockey team. They were travelling home from hockey practice and a team photoshoot before the crash, said Grant Bradley, president of Jasper Minor Sports. 

For remote communities like Hinton and Jasper, travelling for the sport is almost unavoidable, and Bradley said Monday’s crash is sparking some difficult conversations. 

“This is not the first incident this year in Alberta,” he said. “So that’s one of the concerns and it has been raised at league level as to travel.”

The crash involving the Hinton teens occurred just three weeks after three hockey players were killed in a collision in southern Alberta while driving to a team practice.

According to RCMP, road conditions are believed to be a factor in the crash that killed Peacock and Hills.

“There’s young people that travel many miles on the road over their young hockey careers, and they’re at risk in doing this and progressing themselves in hockey,” said Bradley.

Before spending three years playing hockey together, Peacock and Hills played ringette together for 11 years.

A National Junior Hockey League game will be played in Jasper on Friday between the Edson Eagles and Hinton Canadians, which will include a moment of silence for Peacock and Hills, as well as a 50/50 raffle with organizers saying all proceeds will go to their families.

The primary tribute will take place next week. The Bearcats will play their first game without Peacock and Hills on March 6 against the Edson Sabres.

Hinton Mayor Brian LaBerge described the loss of the two teens as “shredding.”

“These are two really young people who are just ready to set the world on fire and they haven’t had their turn,” he said.

Peacock was proud to hold the title of Rimbey Rodeo Queen and was looking forward to the pro rodeo being held in Rimbey in March, said Calvert. 

Calvert said Hills loved to go fishing.

LaBerge described the teenagers as “bright lights” who were as dedicated to their academics as they were to their athletics.

He emphasized the impact that the tragedy will have on their school in Hinton, especially the teaching staff whose pupils “become [their] children” in some ways.

The flags at Harry Collinge High School are being flown at half-mast this week in the wake of the crash that claimed the lives of the two Grade 12 students.

Classes at the school resumed on Thursday. A statement from the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division said grief counselling and mental health support are available to students and staff.

“Our entire district community is mourning,” Supt. Kurt Scobie said. “There are no words that can fully capture the grief of such a loss.”

“The kids, they’re handling it better than I can imagine,” Bradley said. “The adults are having arguably a harder time because they’re parents. … Losing a child, it’s heart-wrenching.”