Girl dragged by car for 40m

By LINA CHUNG

The first emergency responder on the scene of a traffic accident that killed a teenaged girl testified Monday that all he could see at the scene was a hand in front of a face and a body pinned underneath a car.

Fernanda Girotto, 14, an exchange student from Brazil, was killed after being struck by two different cars crossing the street at the 7200-block of Cariboo Road in Burnaby on Jan. 17, 2018.

“The predicament was dire,” said paramedic Wayne Mitchell, his voice breaking on the witness stand. “All I could see was a face and a hand. It’s embossed in my memory.”

On Monday in the Provincial

Court of British Columbia, the trial began for Paul Oliver Wong and Kai Man Cheu, the two drivers charged for driving without due care and attention.

Girotto was allegedly struck down by a first car before being hit and dragged by the second car.

Mitchell was the first witness in the four-day trial being heard before Judge David St. Pierre. He testified Monday that he checked the victim’s neck for a pulse and then asked the driver of the car to slowly reverse the car while he and his partner held the body down to try to unpin it from underneath the car.

The indictment against Wong said he failed to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing on Cariboo Road.

The indictment against Cheu said he was driving on the left side of the roadway and overtaking and passing another vehicle when it was unsafe to do so.

Crown prosecutor Geordie Proulx said in court that the Crown’s case against Wong is that he “failed to keep watch of pedestrians” and the case against Cheu was he “bypassed Mr. Wong’s car when it was unsafe.”

After Wong allegedly hit the pedestrian, Proulx said that Cheu’s car struck Girotto, dragging her 40 metres.

“He should have stopped,” Proulx said, adding that the driver should have known he had hit a large object.

Both Wong and Cheu pleaded not guilty.

In a Facebook post, after her daughter died, Rosana Girotto wrote that her daughter “left Brazil full of life, joy and dreams.” about the planned transit strike. Desmond said both parties needed to return to the bargaining table, “without any preconditions.”

She wrote that she hoped that her death would make authorities make changes in traffic signage.

According to Mitchell it was a dark day with heavy rain when the accident happened. A pedestriancontrolled light was installed at the crosswalk within two months of the fatality, Mitchell said.

TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond spoke to media at Waterfront Station on Monday morning about the planned transit strike. Desmond said both parties needed to return to the bargaining table “without any preconditions.”

“The union’s planned strike, set to start Wednesday, will have a devastating impact on the people of Metro Vancouver,” Desmond said. “It will be especially felt by the 165 thousand people who use the bus every day.”

In a press conference held at Monday, Gavin McGarrigle, the western regional director of Unifor, said the union will continue to negotiate.

“We’re going back to the bargaining table tomorrow afternoon,” McGarrigle said. “We will reach a fair deal, or else we will take strike action on Wednesday.”

FACTS ON PAST TRANSIT WOES

>> First in 18 years

This strike is the first time in more than 18 years where local unions have issued a strike notice.

>> Four months

Last time this happened was in 2001, and the strike lasted for four months.

>> 99 per cent

On Oct. 10 of this year, the two Unifor local unions voted 99 per cent in favour of strike action.

>> 5,000 workers

Unifor represents more than 5,000 workers at Coast Mountain Bus Company.

SOURCE: UNIFOR.ORG