Brampton dad says daughter killed by allegedly impaired driver was the ‘light of my life’

July 18, 2024 Canuck

The father of a teenage girl, who died after a crash allegedly caused by an impaired driver, says he feels lost without her.

“She was the light of my life,” Rodney Rousell said through tears on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Thursday.

Maddy Rousell, 15, was walking with a friend on the way to her father’s birthday last Friday when an allegedly impaired driver struck another vehicle that then spun onto the sidewalk, striking and killing her.

The 36-year-old Mississauga man who Peel Regional Police say caused the crash has been charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death, refusing to give a breath sample and making an unsafe turn.

Rousell said the crash has left his family reeling.

“Everyone knows drinking and driving is wrong and it kills,” he said.

“I just don’t understand why my baby is gone.”

Listen | ‘I don’t know why someone drinks and drives these days’: Father of teen killed by alleged drunk driver tearfully shares his family’s story:

Metro Morning10:23‘I don’t know why someone drinks and drives these days’: Father of teen killed by alleged drunk driver tearfully shares his family’s story

Rodney Rousell’s daughter Maddy was killed in a crash. Peel police have charged the driver of the car, a Mississauga man, with refusal to comply with a breath demand, and dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death.

Rousell says he was expecting his daughter and her friend to join him for a cake at about 8:30 p.m. on Friday. When he didn’t get a response to his texts, he started calling Maddy — but those calls went to her voicemail, he said.

“That’s just not like her. She always used to get back to me within minutes. I knew something was wrong.”

Maddy with her sister — Maddy Rousell, left, with her sister. Maddy was on foot when she was struck and killed by a vehicle last Friday. (Submitted by Rodney Rousell )

The crash happened a short distance away, near McLaughlin Road North and Horwood Drive, according to police.

Moments later, Rousell said, Maddy’s friend’s mother called to say his daughter had been taken to hospital.

Before he could get into his car to rush to the hospital, police were outside the family’s house to tell them what had happened.

“We’re shocked,” he said. “We’re still in disbelief.”

Maddy’s friend suffered minor injuries, which police said were treated at the scene.

Mourning ‘a sweet girl’

Rousell says he is a proud father of a girl he remembers as someone with “wonder in her eyes.”

He says Maddy was good at school and had a large circle of friends. If she was still alive, he says they would have gone for a camping trip in northern Ontario this weekend.

“She was a sweet girl, she loved doing things, she loved planning things,” Rousell said.

But the family hasn’t been able to process her passing, he says.

Maddy at 4 — Rousell says his daughter was ‘a sweet girl, she loved doing things, she loved planning things.’ (Submitted by Rodney Rousell )

“I wake up every morning crying and I go to bed crying,” Rousell said. “I hate this feeling and I don’t know when it’s going to go away.”

Rousell said he is the sole earner in the family, and a GoFundMe has been set up to help the family make ends meet while he’s unable to provide for them.

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