I was coming home from Walmart this evening just before 9pm this evening. I was on the Skytrain and as my car was stopped at one of the stations near my home, I could see a large police presence on the road next to the station. It appeared traffic was stopped in both directions and I guessed there must have been an accident.
The tracks paralleled the road so when my train started moving closer to the police vehicles, I could see more clearly what was going on. Traffic was definitely stopped in both directions and there were a lot of semis on the road. Police officers were out and about, talking to the stopped drivers. I expected to see some damaged vehicles but there were none, at least from what I saw. I was really puzzled because it didn’t seem like there was anything blocking the road.
My train soon zoomed past the scene, so I was left wondering what had happened. About thirty-minutes after I got home, I found out why the police were out on the road. Apparently, a woman was struck by a tractor trailer and died at the scene. The vehicle that killed her drove off. It’s quite possible that her body was still on the road when I passed by and I just didn’t see it.
I have personally driven down that busy stretch of road many times. The road has a lot traffic at all times of the day and night, especially with the tractor trailers. What I don’t understand is that it appears she was struck in between intersections and in that area, there’s a considerable distance between intersections. Obviously I don’t know the details but if she was indeed trying to cross four lanes of busy traffic on a dark and rainy night, that was an odd decision. I found a video that shows the road in question and as you can see, there are no crosswalks and one side of the road doesn’t even have a sidewalk. Did the vehicle that struck her jump the curb to do so? None of the reports seem to indicate this though.
Poor lady, I feel for her family.