Mother of 5 killed in Perimeter Highway crash lived for her children

A woman from La Salle, Man. was on her way to a job she specifically took for her children, when she died in a head-on collision on the Perimeter Highway on Wednesday.

Tammy Rosko was motivated to give her five children the best life she could, her brother Mike Rosko told CBC News. 

"That was her driving force, was her kids, and now these kids don't have a mom."

Tammy, 42, was killed in a fatal collision just east of the Brady Road intersection around 7:30 a.m. 

RCMP says it is investigating why a westbound truck, driven by a 32-year-old man, crossed over the median. The truck hit an eastbound minivan head-on. Tammy, the lone occupant in the minivan, died from the impact.

She worked to be with her kids.- Mike Rosko

The truck driver was taken to hospital in serious condition. 

Tammy loved to be behind the wheel, her brother said. She was driving that morning to Assiniboine Park Zoo where she drove a trolley to shuttle guests around the park, and she worked during the school year as a bus driver. 

Supporting her family

The trolley job was a means of making extra money for her family, Mike said. Her partner Brent Horn and their five children, three boys and two girls, range in age from 11 to 20. 

"She worked to be with her kids."

Mike heard about the serious crash on Wednesday morning when a cellphone alert cautioned drivers to stay away.

He thought little of the notification until he received a distraught call from his mother two hours later.

"I couldn't believe it," he said.

Mike and Tammy planned to spend Thursday at the house of their father, who recently died, to clean it up and prepare the home for market, but instead he's in mourning.

"It's not even so much what I'm going to miss about her, it's more that I feel so bad for her children," he said. "Her children were so close to her. They're super devastated."

RCMP say seatbelts were used by the drivers involved in the crash and speed is not considered a factor.