Sea to Sky crash survivor faces loss of husband, brother, daughter
Posted November 29, 2023 6:29 pm.
Last Updated November 30, 2023 8:26 pm.
The lone survivor of a fatal weekend crash on the Sea to Sky Highway is now facing the reality of the loss of her husband, brother, and two-year-old daughter.
The crash happened at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday morning just south of Whistler when Iris Portillo and her family were heading home from a church gathering.
Portillo came out of the collision with a fractured jaw and bruising on her face, and is now out of the hospital. She says paramedics focused on her daughter Natalia first after the crash.
“They tried to save my daughter actually, they did CPR on her for one hour,” Portillo told Arvin Joaquin, OMNI News. “I felt like my heart was being crushed, and then I felt like my world was falling apart.”
“I barely got scratched and then they passed away.”
Now that Portillo is home, she says she is leaning heavily on her family.
“There’s so much love and support,” she said.
“If they were here, they would be so shocked and surprised by how much love there is in the community.”
Portillo says when they were leaving the event before the crash, her husband Josafat was doing what he loved the most — spending time with his church community and his family.
“He was hugging everyone in the church — he was taking pictures, he was hugging, he was showing everyone his car,” she said.
Police say the vehicle drove off the road and hit a tree, and don’t believe any criminality is involved.
A GoFundMe organized for the family has raised nearly $70,000.
With files from OMNI News
