Wrong-way driver in fatal West Van crash relied on Waze, court hears

Melesesh Sahalo told a North Vancouver court she was simply following directions when she entered the wrong lanes at Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal after 11 p.m. on June 26, 2024.

Sahalo, 28, had used Waze to navigate to the terminal to pick up a friend arriving by foot passenger ferry from Nanaimo. The app directed her to Exit 3 on Highway 1, but instead of the village and passenger areas, she ended up in lanes leading to ferry toll booths. "I simply looked at the directions that Waze showed me and I simply drove there," she testified.

After realizing her mistake, Sahalo drove around two rows of traffic cones and typed a new destination into the app. She then drove from the toll booths back into the ferry terminal's marshalling lanes — and ended up driving southbound in the northbound lanes of Upper Levels Highway. Over just more than two kilometres, she passed exits to Horseshoe Bay Village and Horseshoe Bay Drive, along with numerous road markers, backwards signs and directional indicators. Ferry terminal surveillance video showed her driving past a "do not enter" sign for the exit ramp.

Sahalo encountered a truck driver at the terminal who told her she had to turn around. A resident who attempted to help tried to direct her to the passenger pick-up area, but Sahalo did not see anyone in an official capacity.

Her Dodge Caliber crossover struck a Toyota Corolla head-on. The Corolla held four young international students heading to Whistler: Charanpreet Dhillon and Sachin Sachdeva, both of whom died, and two passengers who were seriously injured.

Sahalo faces two counts of dangerous driving causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. Crown counsel Sean Harvey and defence lawyer David Fai presented evidence on October 9 before Judge Ariana Ward in provincial court.