Grieving family of Zaidee Jensen watches footage of tragic accident

Zaidee Jensen, 29, is shown in an undated image. Courtesy: Facebook

A weekend has passed since a young mother passed away, after accidentally falling off of an LRT platform, suffering trauma so serious she slipped into a coma, her family has seen first-hand the fall the lead to her death.

Zaidee Jensen’s family was invited to watch the security footage of the entire incident downtown on Monday.

Her father, Al Potter, finally saw what the visually impaired 29-year-old mother of two was doing Wednesday afternoon, moments before a misstep caused her to fall – and hit her head on the tracks.

“She was on her way to West Edmonton Mall to buy a wedding present for her sister-in-law, who was getting married Saturday,” Potter said.

Jensen had just finished work at the National Research Council on the University of Alberta campus.

She was waiting for the train at the University LRT station with two sighted co-workers – as she had for the past 12 years at the same station – when she lost her footing.

“Basically, she came out of the doors, she faced the wrong way,” Potter said, recounting what he saw on the security footage. “She was sliding her feet on the tiles, and then her co-worker reached for her.

“But it was too late, she went over the edge of the platform, backwards.”

Although she was placed on life support, her family took her off early Friday morning – she passed away at about 1:45 a.m.

Now, her family hopes Edmonton Transit officials will make changes that could prevent another tragedy like this one from happening to another family.

Potter and Jensen’s husband Mike have said they want changes made to LRT platforms, to make it easier for those with visual impairments to be aware of the edge of the platform.

“It’s a very narrow strip between the wall of the stairwell and the edge of the platform,” Mike Jensen said.

Last week, on the same day the news of Jensen’s fall and death broke, her husband said the warning signals on the University LRT station platform weren’t enough for those who relied on physical signs to know where the edge was.

On Friday, Mike Jensen said he wanted rough strips added to the edges of the platforms at certain LRT stations as a warning.

While it was painful for the family, Potter said watching the video was necessary – to ensure such an accident doesn’t happen again.

“In order to move forward and make this so it doesn’t happen again, and make this right, we have to do things like this.”

In the meantime, the family is planning two memorials for Zaidee Jensen, one in Calgary where she grew up, and a second in Edmonton next week.

With files from Susan Amerongen