A woman who witnessed a deadly crash on the Trans-Canada Highway is frustrated after not being asked to testify in the trial of an alleged impaired driver. The charges against the man were stayed when other witnesses failed to appear in court.

“I’m not a lawyer, judge, police officer or anything but I feel like the information I had to offer right after that was credible information,” said Melanie Marsh.

Marsh was driving from Canmore to Cochrane on the morning of April 20, 2016 when a van ahead of her began to swerve on the highway before entering the ditch and rolling. Marsh watched as several bodies were thrown from the van.

“If I close my eyes, I can replay it like it was yesterday.”

Marsh stopped her car in the centre median of the Trans-Canada Highway west of the Highway 22 overpass, called 911,  and described the conditions of the seven victims to the operator before attempting CPR on an injured person. Other motorists stopped to help before emergency crews arrived. Marsh remained at the scene and provided police with a statement.

A total of seven people had been inside the van, none of whom had been wearing a seatbelt. The collision claimed the lives of Travisha Powderface and Charlie Shortneck. The initial reports of first responders indicated it had been a woman driving the vehicle.

After the crash, Marsh found a bracelet that had landed on her windshield. She wanted to return the item to its rightful owner but feared it could reopen painful memories for the crash victim. Now that the case has returned to a public forum, she is asking the owner to contact Bow Valley Services to retrieve the jewelry.

McFarland Kootenay of Morley was charged with impaired driving and criminal negligence following the police investigation into the crash.

At trial, the defence questioned whether the accused was the person behind the wheel at the time of the crash. According to Marsh, any testimony she could have provided on the identity of the driver would not be conclusive on its own but she believes her recollections would have proven invaluable.  “I think I had valuable information to share and I think it would have been effective if it was actually heard.”

“The faces of the exact people are vague. How this happened and what I’d seen is not vague.”

Marsh says she was not aware of the charges against Kootenay until she stumbled across a news article saying the charges had been stayed.

Alain Hepner, Kootenay’s attorney, says the testimony of the witness would have confirmed what had already been determined.

“There were a number of facts that the Crown and I were agreeing to as being not contentious such as a horrific accident, fatalities, injuries, location, witnesses, first responders,” explained Hepner. “The issue was who was the driver at the time of the collision and that’s what the whole focus of the trial was going to be.”

“We went to trial. The Crown and I had, what we call, the agreed statement of facts. No one attended.”

The trial was adjourned for several hours and, when the witnesses failed to appear that afternoon, the Crown entered a stay of proceedings.Some of the called witnesses had been in the van during the crash.

Hepner says a conviction on the charges Kootenay faced would have carried a minimum prison sentence of four years and its highly unlikely that the charges against the 35-year-old will be revisited.

Marsh is left to wonder if the victims and their families will ever receive justice. “I can only imagine what the families are going through. I mean they probably want closure too.”

With files from CTV's Alesia Fieldberg