Ava Ahlander Utah concert goer killed in freak accident attending Redwood Music Festival in Salt Lake City after scaffolding landed on her as she scrambled for shelter after sudden gusts picking up.
A female festival goer was killed while attending a country music festival in Utah when she was struck by a piece of falling debris from a nearby construction site over the weekend.
At the time, Ava Ahlander, 23, and other attendees had been scrambling for shelter after the weather suddenly having taken a turn for the worse.
Country music fan had returned to Utah to enjoy festival only for tragedy to strike
The country music fan was outside Redwest Music Festival at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City just on 5 p.m, Saturday when powerful wind gusts ripped a large wooden plank from a scaffold towards her, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
As Ahlander and her three friends ran towards her vehicle for shelter, a massive plank fell about 30 feet, crushing her and the vehicle.
While the other friends evaded strife, Ahlander who took the brunt of the falling beam was rushed to the hospital with critical, life-threatening injuries. Despite best efforts to save her life, she didn’t make it, succumbing to her injuries, a family representative told KUTV on Monday.
‘It just hit her in the head… in the neck. It was hard. It was fast,’ her uncle Boddy Ahlander told the outlet. ‘The doctors said after they were able to get her stable and do a CT scan that it basically crushed her brain stem.’
23 year old Redwood Music Festival goer killed in freak accident
Ahlander, who grew up in American Fork and had been living in Seattle, had returned to Utah with friends to enjoy the weekend music festival and see Post Malone, her uncle Bobby wrote in a Facebook post.
‘She just always loved having fun. It was really fun to be around her,’ he told KSL.
‘Honestly, it’s been excruciating. The grief and the sorrow, and of course, it’s such a big surprise; and it’s just such a huge loss.’
Her uncle said that as his niece and her friends stood outside the vehicle, the plank hit her in what he called a ‘freak accident.’
Though first responders managed to revive her at the scene, doctors later found she had no brain activity, the relative revealed.
Her family said she was kept on life support just long enough for them to say their goodbyes.
Even in death, Ava Ahlander will give life to others
In the aftermaths of the tragedy, Ava’s organs will give life to others after having made the choice years ago to donate her organs at the time of her death, FOX13 reports.
‘She had made the decision a few years ago to be an organ donor,’ her uncle Bobby told the outlet. ‘And now, many people are going to benefit from that, and I just think that’s so beautiful.’
Ahlander’s love for music was matched only by her love for the outdoors, the ocean, and her life in the Pacific Northwest according to her uncle, Bobby.
After graduating from American Fork High School, she headed to Oregon for college before settling in Seattle, where she’d fallen in love with her new surroundings.
‘Ava was an absolute delight of a human being. Everyone loved her. She had the best smile,’ her uncle wrote on Facebook.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the GoFundme had raised $20,926.
