Teenage pedestrian dies after collision involving off-duty Abbotsford police officer's car

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      A 14-year-old boy has not recovered from serious injuries after being hit by a Mazda 3 in the intersection at Bourquin Crescent West and Mill Lake Road in Abbotsford.

      He was airlifted to hospital following the accident, which occurred at 6:15 p.m. on Boxing Day adjacent to the Sevenoaks bus loop.

      The driver, an off-duty Abbotsford police officer, remained at the scene, according to an Abbotsford Police Department news release.

      The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. is overseeing the investigation.

      "The IIO has reason to believe there are additional witnesses who may have been in the area at the time of the crash," the agency said in a news release. "We are asking that you come forward and call the IIO Infoline at 1-855-446-8477."

      The IIO will not release information about the officer and states that information about the young person's name and cause of death are under the jurisdiction of the B.C. Coroners Service.

      The 14-year-old's death follows another pedestrian death in Vancouver. 

      A 78-year-old woman was struck by a vehicle in the intersection of Kingsway and Earles Street on Christmas Day at 8:30 p.m. and later died in hospital.

      She's the sixth pedestrian death in Vancouver in 2014.

      The driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with police.

      Comments

      7 Comments

      hms

      Dec 28, 2014 at 2:14am

      when will police start to obey the law???????

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      out at night

      Dec 28, 2014 at 11:17am

      @hms

      This is a sad, serious thing so why rush to judgment? What makes you so sure the driver was at fault? People jay-walk ALL the time, and it is quite possible the young man wasn't following the rules (and/or consulting an electronic hand-held device?) when he was hit.

      I can definitely see why you or anyone might suspect the driver was careless, based on the fact that he is a cop. I was nearly offed by one myself about a year ago when he hooked a left turn into the oncoming lane and found himself face to face with me on my bike! Former cop in a parking enforcement car, thinking he was racing to the scene of a bank robbery when he was only on his way to chalk a tire. His explanation for taking that too-tight turn? He saw a pedestrian approaching and thought he had better turn fast to beat them to the cross-walk! So yeah, I do think that cops tend to drive like...cops, even when retired or off-duty; but how be we wait until some more facts emerge before we condemn the driver in this particular incident? Fault could lie with either or both party(ies).

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      Consistency

      Dec 28, 2014 at 11:23am

      If one article notes the profession of a vehicle driver who is not on the job at the time of striking a pedestrian, all articles should note the profession of the vehicle drivers who strike a pedestrian. Otherwise, it appears you are suggesting the profession itself is somehow to blame for this horrible, horrible tragedy. You wouldn't write, "the driver, an off-duty radiographer at Fraser Health" or "the driver, an off-duty garbage truck operator".

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      out at night

      Dec 28, 2014 at 12:16pm

      @ Consistency

      You are asking people (and journalists specifically) to ignore the common folk wisdom that has filtered into our brains through many generations of police acting like dicks behind the wheel. Sorry but there are too many examples floating around, both in the news media and in our personal anecdotes (like mine in previous comment). Here's another: I was behind a VPD cop driving one of those spanky new muscle cars they got, and he turned right without signalling. He then changed lanes, rather aggressively, without signalling. Being a bit of a smart-ass, I chose to call him on it while stopped at a red light. He grinned, gunned the engine, then raced down Richards, changing lanes twice without signalling, presumably for my benefit. You can only have so many of these dickheads running around doing shit like that before the rep starts leaking into the general consciousness. And that happened a long time ago.

      You want consistency? How about police consistently using their signals, stopping at cross-walks, etc? And while they're at it they could also desist from flashing their police lights and chirping their horns so they can run red lights on their way to nowhere in particular. Know what I'm talking about? When you see a cop just decide to flex-and-go like that but you just know there ain't no emergency cuz they slow down right after? This sort of juvenile, entitled nonsense does nothing to discourage the outlook of which I speak.

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      @out at night

      Dec 28, 2014 at 1:19pm

      Do you want to now talk stereotypes about teenage boys now? I thought not. Lay off police officers as a generalization. This is everyone's tragedy. And PS, who would you call when you need help? Exactly.

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      Cynic

      Dec 29, 2014 at 9:40am

      "After dark a teenager wearing dark clothes ran a red light on a skateboard and was hit by a car that was obeying the speed limit and had the right of way."

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      out at night

      Dec 29, 2014 at 10:16am

      @@out at night

      Police have landed at the bottom of the respect pool because of continued, repeated examples of excessive violence and death-dealing. I used to respect the police generally and now I am only afraid of them, and I'm unlikely to call them for help because when I've done that in the past they have been openly contemptuous and disinterested in my troubles because they don't like certain types of people. They really do tend to be cartoonish stereotypes of bigoted, lazy, entitled yobs in real life. Sometimes the cliche is simply true.

      On the other hand some of them are great.

      As for teenage boys, you should go back and read the beginning of my first comment.