A 63-year-old woman from Edmonton is dead after being hit by an alleged drunk driver while vacationing in Prince Edward Island over the weekend.
RCMP Sgt. Andrew Blackadar tells CTV News officers were called to the fatal collision around 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Blackadar says Elizabeth Ann Sovis, the 63-year-old bicyclist who had been riding with her partner along Route 13 in Rennies Road, had been struck and killed by a van. Sovis was wearing a reflective vest at the time of the collision.
“It was a completely unnecessary death,” Blackadar said.
“There was no rain, the roads were dry, there was absolutely no other factors in terms of the cause of the collision other than alcohol.”
Blackadar said Sovis and her partner had been riding legally on the highway, as there are no paved shoulders.
The second cyclist was not injured.
Police say the driver of the van had left the scene after the collision occurred but returned a short time later.
He was arrested for impaired driving causing death after providing breath samples that were well above the legal limit.
On Sunday, the 49-year-old driver of the van who is from Prince Edward Island, appeared before a justice of the peace in Charlottetown, facing a charge of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death.
The man has been remanded into custody and will appear again in court on July 23.
