TOOELE COUNTY, Utah -- The community of Tooele came together this weekend to help a family involved in a horrific crash last month.
Three people were killed and several injured in the three-car crash that happened along State Route 36 near the interchange February 16.
A trip to a concert for their church youth group ended with a crash that killed Donette McCollin and left her husband Kevin paralyzed.
Kevin McCollin was volunteering; driving a van for the group that included their two teenage children. On Sunday, some of their best friends gathered to raise money for the family.
“It's terrifying to think something can change so quickly,” said David Morrow, who is a close friend of the McCollin family.
Last month on a Sunday afternoon, chaos hit State Route 36 in Tooele County as three cars collided. A couple in a Subaru were killed instantly. Donette, known to some as Dee Dee, McCollin also died at the scene.
“Dee Dee was my very first friend when I moved to Dugway in 1984,” said Renee Drochner.
Drochner had been friends with Dee Dee for 30 years. She was there when Dee Dee met her husband Kevin. Kevin had been driving the van with Dee Dee and their two kids when it crashed, and Kevin has been in the hospital ever since.
“Dealing with things, with the death of his wife, and he's also paralyzed from the waist down, so he has to deal with that also,” Drochner said.
Morrow said they hope to relieve any stress they can.
“I want him to focus on getting better,” he said. “You know, a blow like this... I couldn’t even imagine myself, and with something as little as finances—I didn't want him to worry about it.”
Friends of the McCollin family got together and organized a fundraiser at Morrow’s Tooele tattoo shop. On Saturday alone, $3,500 was raised.
“It's just human nature, the drive to help somebody,” Morrow said of their efforts.
Kevin's kids came to visit him in the hospital Saturday, and it was the first time he`d seen his son Hunter since the accident.
“He looks a whole lot better than I would if I were in his shoes, he's a strong person,” Morrow said.
A memorial fund has been set up so that people can donate from anywhere in the country, the fund is under the McCollin family name at Wells Fargo Bank.
