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.

Blind woman dies after falling off Edmonton LRT platform

A visually-impaired woman died after she slipped and fell off the platform at the University LRT station in Edmonton on Wednesday, according to her family.

Zaidee Jensen, 29, hit her head, slipped into a coma and never recovered. The married mother of two died in hospital early Friday after her family took her off life support.

“So there’s two children without a mother,” said her father Albert Potter. Jensen had used the LRT for a decade and was with a sighted friend when she fell off the platform, he added.

Zaidee’s husband, Mike Jensen, said he received a phone call from the hospital just after he got home on Wednesday.

“I’d just turned on the barbecue to start supper,” he said.

“This whole nightmare started from there.”

City officials held a news conference Friday afternoon where they confirmed that Jensen was taken to hospital. However, they didn’t provide an official update on her condition nor did they release her name.

Ron Gabruck, director of operational support for Edmonton Transit, said that there were no trains in the station at the time. Jensen fell onto the northbound track.

Transit officials reviewing video

Gabruck said that a nurse who was in the station immediately came to Jensen’s aid. Officials have started an investigation and are now reviewing security footage from the station, Gabruck said.

Zaidee Jensen worked as an office administrator for the National Research Council on the University of Alberta campus. She lost most of her sight at the age of 15 because of a brain tumes cut into the tile. 

The University LRT station has grooves cut into the tile along the edge of the platform. However, the markings aren’t as prominent as they are at some other Edmonton LRT stations, which have raised round bumps along a yellow border.

Mike Jensen, who is also visually impaired, wants the city to look at ways to make the platforms safer.

“It’s a very great thing to have that freedom to move throughout the city,” he said.

“I don’t know if it needs to go on to full-on barricades on the platforms, but there’s got to be ways to make better warnings.”

Potter says the family wants to know if more could be done to make the LRT safer for people with disabilities.

“What I don’t want to see is this happen to another family,” Potter said. “More children going without a mother and a father.”

Jensen says he’s yet to hear anything from city officials.