B.C. Views Bills come due at B.C. Hydro. p6
‘Scrap metal bylaw is too onerous.’ p3
THE NEws
Arts&life Get ready for a blast from the past. p19
www.mapleridgenews.com wednesday, September 18, 2013 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
Strike looms over education teachers warned to expect school closures by Nei l Corbe tt staff reporter
Teachers in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows were told Tuesday to expect a strike by CUPE education workers as early as Monday, meaning there could be no classes. “That’s a possibility, but it’s still not definite,” said Ridge Meadows School District CUPE (local 703) representative Leslie Franklin, who was speaking from her chair at the bargaining table. “We’re still talking.” The two sides had all but reached an impasse, but set aside the first three days of this week for talks. By the end of Wednesday, the question of job action will be answered. Teachers will not cross the union picket line, and George Serra, president of the Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association, in support of CUPE. See Strike, p13
Colleen Flanagan/tHe newS
Show of support Dawson McGuinness, 11, shows his support for the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Terry Fox Run on Sunday with a tattoo on his forehead. See more, p12.
Driver in fatal crash makes apology Andelina Hecimovic insists she was not speeding and trying to run a red light by M o ni s ha M a r tin s staff reporter
A woman who lost control of her car, killing a young couple in Pitt Meadows three years ago, took the stand in her defence at a trial Monday, sobbing as she testified she was not trying to beat a red light.
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Rebecca ‘Beckie’ Dyer, 19, and her boyfriend, Johnny De Oliveira, 21, died around midnight Oct. 19, 2010, when a Toyota driven by Andelina Kristina Hecimovic skidded sideways over a concrete median, flipped and landed on top of their Suzuki Swift. Hecimovic, 26, was the only person called by defence to testify at a trial on two counts of dangerous driving causing death. A nurse, Hecimovic was heading to her boyfriend’s house on Meadow Gardens Way, about a kilometre away from the crash site, after a try-
1 APPIES
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ing day working in the emergency room at Eagle Ridge Hospital in . A suicidal patient had vomited on her. “I felt very drained. I had just started my menstrual cycle. I wanted a hug,” she said in New Westminster Supreme Court. “I wanted to be comforted.” As she drove east on Lougheed Highway and approached the traffic lights at Harris Road, Hecimovic saw a lane to her right “open up.” She claims she had no idea it was a right-turn-only lane and didn’t see the flashing yellow lights as she
neared the intersection. Choking back tears, Hecimovic told the court she was thinking about her shift and suddenly smelled something odd. When she looked at her scrubs she noticed vomit on her shirt and burst into tears. “I was trying to wipe my tears away and focus on the road when I realized it was a red light,” she said. By then, Hecimovic was in the Monisha Martins/tHe newS middle of the intersection. “Everything happened so fast,” Audrey De Oliveira and Debbie Dyer speak to media outside New Westminster she said. See Trial, p5 Supreme Court on Monday. Run Date: Sept 18, 2013 Maple Ridge News (3.9156” x 1.4167”) Colour EOR#5901
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