FARGO — On the farm, she was preparing to bow hunt deer this weekend near Wahpeton. Bailey Bernstein’s family could talk for hours about their much-loved daughter and sister.
She was “outgoing and silly and athletic,” said her mom, Christy Bernstein. “The list is endless. Caring. She had a heart of gold.”
Twenty-year-old Bailey Bernstein and her mother were out walking Thursday night, Oct. 12, like they always do near the airport in Wahpeton. But the family’s lives changed in a split second.
At 7:40 p.m., a pickup truck going the same direction hit Bailey Bernstein from behind
.
“She flew,” said Christy Bernstein, who witnessed it all. “She was on the grill of the truck for about 20 feet, and before he (the driver) corrected himself to get back on the road, she flew and rolled and rolled and rolled. It was bad. It feels like it happened just now; it is replaying constantly. I wish it would’ve been me. She had a whole life to live.”
After doctors at Sanford Health in Fargo declared Bailey Bernstein brain dead on Saturday, family and friends gathered Sunday at the hospital. After the raising of the Donate Life flag, Christy Bernstein and husband Jon Bernstein made a walk no parent wants to make — the Honor Walk to the operating room to donate Bailey Bernstein’s lungs, kidney, liver and heart.
“I knew for many years she wanted this (to donate her organs), and she is such a giver and she always helped and loved everybody. I had to follow through with what she wanted,” Christy Bernstein said.
“I have no words for anything. People come up and say sorry, and I can’t say anything. I just can’t. It was so quick and tragic,” Jon Bernstein said.
Her family is going through all the emotions of grief and loss right now. Anger, sadness, and then smiles as they think of what was and what could have been.
Bailey Bernstein was “always being nice, always being there for someone,” said her brother, Trevor Bernstein. “If you needed to talk to someone, she was always there.”
“She was the life of the party. Life of life, she always put others first. She was the rock of our family, the footing,” Jon Bernstein said.
Police arrested 52-year-old Chad Olson hours after the crash after a man told Wahpeton police he saw a vehicle he believed was involved in the crash, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The pickup was parked in a driveway in the 800 block of Third Street North, court documents said.
Olson walked out of a nearby home and told an officer he was involved in a crash near the airport, the affidavit said. He also told a state trooper he believed he fell asleep while driving near the airport when he struck something, court documents said, adding he heard or felt a “boom.”
Olson said he didn’t stop to check what he hit because he “panicked,” court documents said.
He told police he had three 12-ounce cans of Budweiser between 3 and 7 p.m., and a chemical breath test revealed he had a blood alcohol content of 0.114% when speaking to law enforcement, according to the affidavit. The legal limit to drive is 0.08%.
Olson was facing felony charges of criminal vehicular injury and leaving the scene of an injury crash. Criminal vehicular injury is an advanced driving under the influence charge. Authorities say those charges will now be upgraded.
Olson appeared Friday in Richland County District Court in connection to the crash. Judge Bradley Cruff set bond at $50,000.
Olson posted bond and was released the same day. Court records did not list an attorney for him.
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