SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (WKRC) – A woman was killed in a “freak accident” while attending a country concert on Saturday.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, 23-year-old Ava Ahlander was attending RedWest music festival in Salt Lake City, Utah when severe weather conditions hit, resulting in a mandatory evacuation of the event.
Ahlander and three friends left the fairgrounds and went to her car to take shelter, but at some point they got out of the vehicle when a gust of wind blew a 2′ X12″ scaffolding board from a nearby apartment building that was under construction at the time, per the publication.
The New York Post reported that the plank fell around 30 feet and crushed both Ahlander and her vehicle. Paramedics arrived at the scene at around 5:15 p.m., and Ahlander was taken to the hospital with critical injuries, and later died, per the reports.
In a post to Facebook, Bobby Ahlander, Ava Ahlander’s uncle, wrote that she was “an avid concert goer and had flown in from Seattle to go see Post Malone with her friends.”
“She just always loved having fun. It was really fun to be around her,” Bobby Ahlander said when speaking with 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.”
He told the outlet that the plank had struck her while she and her friends were standing outside, describing the incident as a “freak accident.” Bobby Ahlander added that she had to be revived, but medical professionals determined that she had lost brain activity, per KSL.
A GoFundMe campaign was launched to help the family cover funeral costs. The campaign aims to raise $18,000, and has raised more than $16,000 as of Tuesday morning, thanks to help from others.
