'Right thing to do': Friend helps Jasper crash survivors reunite with loved ones

When Louisiana businessman Ronnie Remedies got a textmessage saying his friends had been involved in a deadly crash inAlberta's scenic Jasper National Park, he says it was like beingpunched in the stomach.

But then Remedies, a commercial real estate developer who alsoowns Shreveport Limousine, sprang to action to help bring the lovedones of Curtis and Angela Elkins to Edmonton, where survivors of thecollision were hospitalized.

• 6 killed in highway crash south of Jasper, Alta.

"Without even knowing how far it was, I said I'd make ithappen," Remedies said from aboard his private plane in EdmontonThursday.

"I immediately began to scramble and rearrange the rest of myschedule."

Six people died in the crash, which happened about 5 p.m. Tuesdayon the Icefields Parkway about 60 kilometres south of the Jaspertownsite.

RCMP say a van carrying five members of a family from Louisianaand Texas was heading north when it collided with a southboundvehicle, causing both to catch fire.

Angela Elkins and her son-in-law Nick Copeland died, says aFacebook post from Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson. Elkins' husband,Curtis, and daughter, Sarah, were taken to hospital in Edmonton inserious condition.

A toddler, Sarah and Nick Copeland's son, survived with noinjuries.

All four people in the second vehicle were killed, but no detailswere immediately available about their identities.

Remedies said Curtis Elkins owns a pyrotechnics business. The twogot to know each other about five years ago through their work inthe wedding industry, as Remedies supplies the limousines and Elkinsis frequently hired to set up fireworks.

Every year there's a bridal fair in northern Louisiana andRemedies said he and his wife would always request to be seated nextto the Elkinses.

"They always have a smile on their face. And they're always justvery, very friendly people -- good Christian people of faith," hesaid.

Four family members were trying to fly to Edmonton on Wednesday,but the only commercial flights available would have had them arriveThursday evening.

So Remedies offered to fly them on his six-seater BeechcraftBaron twin-engine plane.

The family members didn't have passports, so Remedies worked with elected officials to have some made within a few hours. Theytravelled to the national passport office in Hot Springs, Ark., toretrieve them and took off from an airfield there.

"It certainly wasn't an easy thing to do, but it was the rightthing to do," said Remedies. "The important thing was that familywas reunited with the young child and with Curtis and Curtis'daughter last night."

The relatives arrived at 2:30 a.m. Edmonton time on Thursday.

"I knew they weren't going to go to sleep until they were with
them, so that's why it was important for them to fly through the
night and get them here."