When Sharlotte Skowronek picked up the phone, she braced for more bad news. Was it the hospital calling to tell her that her husband, Joey, had died from injuries suffered in the avalanche? It wasn’t. It was an investigator from the major crime division of the Kelowna RCMP. He asked Ms. Skowronek how her husband was doing. But he mostly wanted to talk about something else: child endangerment.
“What I picked up from the conversation was they are considering charging parents who took their kids to the event with endangering their child,” Ms. Skowronek said this week.
“He wanted to know how I would feel about child endangerment charges if my husband survives.” And she said they wanted to let her know that the co-ordinators of the snowmobile event may face charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The inspector also said police would want to interview the couple’s seven-year-old son, Joey Jr., who was on Boulder Mountain with his dad when the avalanche struck. Police have not yet determined how many children were among the estimated 200 people who came to Revelstoke last Saturday to watch snowmobiling daredevils traverse high up the mountain as part of a loosely structured event called the Big Iron Shootout.
RCMP Corporal Dan Moskaluk confirmed in an interview that “all aspects of this event are being investigated, and one of those aspects is parents bringing their children.
“As an adult, we are responsible for ourselves, but then, as well at times, child protection and child care does become an issue for governing bodies to ensure that children are safe,” he said.
Cpl. Moskaluk confirmed that investigators would likely want to talk to children who were there when a pair of snowmobilers racing up the mountain triggered the slide. The risk of avalanche in the area was rated high at the time.
“Everything is on the table, and that would include provincial legislation that applies,” he said. “And seeing that we have information about children being there, it’s conceivable and safe to say that we would be looking at [any laws or statutes] that apply to that as well.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Children and Family Development declined to comment until police finish the investigation, as did a spokesperson for the Crown Counsel’s office.
Sharlotte Skowronek, meantime, doesn’t quite know what to think. She is still shaken by the events of last week. Her husband, Joey Mazzei, is in critical condition at Kelowna General Hospital with severe injuries that include a collapsed lung, brain damage, broken vertebrae and massive bleeding in his stomach.
Joey Jr. is at home after being released late this week from hospital in Revelstoke. His injuries included cracked ribs, lung damage and an ugly gash to the head.
A week after the event, Ms. Skowronek’s voice still trembles when she talks about it. She understands the RCMP’s concerns about the children who were at Boulder Mountain when the avalanche struck because she has the same concerns herself. She has questions, too.
Right now, her husband is in no condition to answer them. In her heart, she said, she wants to believe he would never have taken their son to the Big Iron Shootout knowing that the risk of avalanche in the area was high.
“His last words to me were ‘Look, if there’s any chance of avalanches, the Shootout won’t be going. It will be cancelled.’ Because I was worried,” she said. “Revelstoke is known for avalanches. There’s people killed every winter there by avalanches. But I just can’t believe my husband would have taken our son up there knowing the risk was extremely high. I just can’t believe it.”
