Friends and family of a young mother are beginning the week in mourning after a deadly truck accident in North Kamloops.

Emergency crews were called to the 700 block of Mackenzie Avenue at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. RCMP Staff Sgt. Doug Aird said a southbound pickup truck drove off the road and hit a tree.

A female passenger was thrown through the windshield and pronounced dead at the scene, Aird said Sunday. A male passenger was taken by ambulance to Royal Inland Hospital, where he succumbed to his injures.

The woman was identified as Brittany Plotnikoff. The man has not been identified yet. A wooden cross erected at 768 Mackenzie reads Forever Ken and Brittany.

Investigators believe speed and alcohol played a part in the crash. Aird said the driver, a 48-year-old Kamloops man, faces a number of charges.

Trish McNaughton lives at the Woodland Trailer Park where the accident took place. She was watching a movie Friday night and rushed outside when she heard what sounded like an explosion.

McNaughton found a row of fencing torn from the ground along Mackenzie and what remained of a pickup truck in a yard. She ran to the vehicle and looked in the cab.

“It looked like the driver was upright and somebody was sprawled lengthways across the front seat,” said McNaughton.

Suddenly, the driver turned to her and asked about his dog. “My dog is in here,” he said.

She found a small black dog trembling in the cab and curled it into her arms, she said. At that point, the driver told McNaughton there was a third person in the truck.

McNaughton looked around and saw nothing. She said she looked at the ground and a body was at her feet.

Her boyfriend phoned 911. Emergency crews arrived within minutes.

A collection of candles and stuffed animals encircled the cross Sunday morning. A few people stopped to look.

“It’s horrible,” said Bill Schwartz, who lives nearby. “It’s sad.”

He said people speed along Mackenzie at all hours of the day and night. Vehicles have left the road and hit fences before, but this is the first time he can remember anyone dying.

A Facebook group dedicated to Plotnikoff’s memory posted pictures of her with her baby. Other photographs showed her playing basketball at Westsyde secondary, where she was considered one of the best players in the city during her senior season.