Article content

On Kailynn Bursic-Panchuk’s 17th birthday, doctors in a Saskatoon hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit told her family she’d have “no quality of life” if she pulled out of the coma she’d been in for several days.

Six days earlier, the outgoing teen was driving to visit a friend when her vehicle was struck by a train near the Canadian Pacific rail yard close to Weyburn.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or 'You don't get to do things over': Mom who lost teen daughter in suspected distracted driving crash calls on others to pay attention to road Back to video

A CP Rail investigator later returned Kailynn’s phone to her family, and told her loved ones the collision was deemed to be the result of distracted driving.

Her mother, Sandra LaRose, continues to grieve — and she is determined to share her story and convey a message to all drivers: put your phone away. Keep it out of sight and out of mind when you’re on the road.

“I just want people to know and to realize, if you’re not paying 100 per cent attention, one split-second lapse of judgement can cost you everything, cost your family everything. When you’re dead, you don’t get to do things over, there’s no rewind, there’s no joking around if you run a red light — ‘Oh, I’ll stop twice next time.’ There’s none of that. You’re dead,” she said.