A woman is dead after what police believe was a high-speed crash involving a drunk driver.

Around 3:15 a.m. Sunday morning, police say a Mercedes was heading westbound on Bow Trail when it crashed head-on into a Ford pickup at Sarcee Trail, S.W.

Duty Inspector Paul Stacey said the woman was a passenger in the pickup and died instantly and the driver of the pickup is in hospital in serious, but non-life threatening condition.

“The driver of the Mercedes was relatively uninjured, but we noticed strong signs of what we believed to be impairment, alcohol impairment on this individual,” he said. “He is currently in custody and we’re investigating alcohol as a factor in this crash.”

27-year-old Ramandeep Singh Jaswal of Calgary is charged with impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm and refusing to provide a breath sample.

Even with the latest changes to the drunk driving law, Duty Inspector Paul Stacey tells 660News, people still aren’t getting the message and says “You know what, it changes people’s lives forever; everybody that’s involved in this, plus all the collateral damage from friends and family. It is unbelievable that people still don’t get that message.”

The crash closed down southbound Sarcee Trail at Highway One and westbound Bow Trail until the noon hour.

Jaswal is scheduled to make his first appearance in court Tuesday morning.