Family of woman killed in Gardiner hit-and-run speaks out, driver granted bail

Mohammad Anas Ashna said his life was good in Canada until around 2 a.m. on July 4, when the Kia he was driving with his wife, daughter, sister-in-law and mother-in-law inside was rear-ended by an Audi Sedan on the eastbound Gardiner Expressway near Dufferin Street. Police said the Audi had been travelling at a high rate of speed just prior to the collision.

The family was returning to Toronto after spending the day and evening in Niagara Falls. Videos shown to Global News captured Anas and his wife and son enjoying tourist attractions followed by a picnic with more than a dozen members of their extended family. Ashna says he barely remembers anything about the crash because he was rendered unconscious.

Anas said the family came to Toronto as refugees from Kandahar, Afghanistan on Jan. 1st, 2024, and were settling in until everything changed in an instant. Ashna’s 41-year-old mother-in-law Fazlia Shirzad was killed in the collision, his 21-year-old sister-in-law remains at St. Michael’s hospital with multiple fractures to her arms and legs, and his two-year-old daughter Simara was rushed to Sick Kids after the collision with a bloody nose and a head injury.

He says his wife, who was also a passenger in the Kia he was driving, has constant back pain. On Friday, Ashna took Simara back to the hospital because she was having trouble walking.

“Before the accident, life was good but not good for me now,” Ashna said. Last Saturday, the family buried Shirzad. Her nephew Naquibullah Qudrat, who was in a car ahead of Ashna’s on the night of the collision, said Shirzad’s life is “not recoverable” and the family wants justice.

“The whole family is destroyed,” said Qudrat.

Forty-eight-year-old Vance Kong appeared in court Friday for a bail hearing wearing an orange jumpsuit from a video room at the Toronto South Detention Centre. Kong, who is charged with six counts including impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and failing to stop at an accident scene causing death, was released on $75,000 bail.

On the day of the fatality, Toronto police said in a news release that witnesses reported seeing the driver of the Black Audi that collided with the rear of the Kia sedan fleeing from the scene on foot.

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Investigators believed that Kong may have been picked up by a rideshare or taxi driver at Lakeshore Boulevard and Spadina Avenue.

After his arrest, sources told Global News that Kong had been arrested by police in Durham Region before being transported back to Toronto.

The conditions of Kong’s release include residing with his father who is his surety. He is forbidden from driving or being in the front seat of a motor vehicle and must remain at home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless in the company of his surety. The evidence heard during the bail hearing is covered by publication ban.

The case will return to court in August.