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Songhees wellness centre welcomes community Page A3
We Rebuild
COMMUNITY: Chinese New Year celebrated early /A4 ARTS: Enjoy your opera from the ground up /A6 SPORTS: Local Bobby Orr fan in TV spotlight /A17
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www.vicnews.com
Bus driver avoids criminal charges Daniel Palmer News staff
A bus driver involved in a fatal collision in downtown Victoria in August 2012 won’t face criminal charges. Stephen Ronald Finnerty was turning left from Humboldt Street northward onto Douglas Street on the morning of Aug. 13, when his tour bus allegedly struck Yuka Imaizumi in a crosswalk. Imaizumi, 27, died at the scene. She was crossing the street on a walk signal at the time, according to witnesses. The Victoria Police Department had recommended a charge of criminal negligence causing death to Crown counsel. Instead, Finnerty will head to trial April 7 to face a lesser charge of driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention under the Motor Vehicle Act. Finnerty attended a pre-trial hearing at Victoria law courts on Thursday. Imaizumi’s death prompted criticism of pedestrian safety at the Humboldt/Douglas intersection, but no traffic alterations have since been made. At the time, Victoria Coun. Lisa Helps suggested a pedestrian scramble, a model that stops all vehicle traffic for foot traffic, may be a viable option for the intersection. dpalmer@vicnews.com
the
Sharon Tiffin/News staff
Victoria’s finest hour Winston Churchill portrayor Christopher Gainor pours some bubbly for Olive Bailey, who was a code breaker in Bletchley Park, Great Britain’s secret intelligence and computers headquarters, during the Second World War. More than 30 people gathered recently around a Hawthorne tree planted in Beacon Hill Park by Churchill in 1929 to listen to stories about the former British prime minister and raise a glass in his honour. The gathering takes place every year around the time of his death (Jan. 24, 1965).
Foggy harbour? No problem, says float plane operator Daniel Palmer News staff
Harbour Air is adding landbased flights to transport passengers during foggy weather. The back-up flight service, which began last week, will use the company’s newly acquired Pilatus PC-12, an eight-seat plane
operated as Tantalus Air, as well as a chartered 30-seat aircraft when necessary. “If there’s a weather problem, we’ll get people a boarding pass then just shuttle them out to the airport on either side,” said Harbour Air spokesperson Randy Wright. Security checks will be expe-
dited at the airport as well, he added. Last week, 264 passengers flew between Vancouver Island and the mainland using the new service during heavy fog. Visibility flight rules mean seaplanes won’t fly if visibility is less than two miles in the air and 300 feet at destination or depar-
RENAISSANCE
ture point, or if wind speeds are above 25 knots. Until last week, grounded seaplane customers were shuttled to the B.C. Ferries terminal at Swartz Bay. “We want to keep our people moving and this is an opportunity to do that,” Wright said. dpalmer@vicnews.com
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