Up front: Mealshare a charity you can really sink your teeth into page 3 Big event: Double the parade pleasure this Summerfest weekend page 12
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Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Bald tires a factor in 2012 Malahat triple tragedy
Skippers of The Birthday Buoys, Richard Young and Tom Rimmer, head for the home stretch on their way to winning the race in the Fast and Furious Boat Building Challenge at the 29th Cowichan Bay Boat Festival Sunday.
Coroner’s report: answers questions about horrific highway crash Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
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ald tires, hydroplaning, and driver inexperience contributed to one of Cowichan’s worst traffic fatalities in recent memory. The Oct. 14, 2012 crash on the Malahat killed three people and injured five others. B.C. coroner Lyn Blenkinsop’s report explains how a seat-belted Pheap Top, 30, died instantly when her southbound, four-door 1997 Honda CRV — carrying four other passengers — collided head on with a GMC pickup truck on the Malahat’s so-called NASCAR corner, near Shawnigan Lake. Two other passengers were killed during the 11:25 a.m. crash just north of Whittaker Road, where the Honda was split in two on impact. Diane Muriel Lacasca Bocacao, 19, and Gene Kloie Resu Jamisola, 16, were later identified by the coroner as the other two killed. The triple tragedy helped spur Cowichanians’ calls for Malahat median upgrades, still being completed. Top’s hydroplaning Honda started a counterclockwise rotation, sliding across the highway into the northbound lane in front of a full-size pickup, Blenkinsop’s report explains. The pickup’s driver tried to avoid the collision by applying his brakes and swerving to his right, but the truck could not stop in time and struck the Honda’s right side. Both vehicles ended in the highway’s eastside ditch, she says. The front half of Top’s Honda stood upright in the ditch; the rear half ended partly on its roof, and partially in its right side in the northbound lane. The GMC pickup received extensive front-end damage, coming to rest against the passenger-side portion of the Honda in the ditch. Top’s other two passengers, and the pickup’s three seat-belted adults, were also taken to hospital. “The driver of the Honda SUV was killed, as well as the female front passenger, and the female in the rear passenger seat who was ejected from the car,” Shawnigan Lake RCMP Sgt. Rob Webb said at the time. A 20-year-old male was also ejected and taken to Victoria General Hospital with life-threatening injuries, said Webb. “A six-year-old girl, who was wearing her seatbelt, is described as a miracle for surviving this horrific crash.” more on page 5
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Langford man dead in Malahat motorcycle crash
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64-year-old man succumbed to injuries he sustained from being struck by a vehicle on the Malahat on Monday afternoon. The motorcycle rider, Gerald Ernest Loiselle, aged 64, of Victoria, was riding in the northbound lane shortly after 4 p.m. when a SUV turned left from South Shawnigan Lake Road northward onto the Trans-Canada Highway. The SUV was driven by a 41-year-old Victoria woman, who was not injured in the collision. The motorcyclist sustained severe injuries as a result of the crash. Despite the efforts of emergency medical services at the scene and en route to the hospital, he passed away. “Our thoughts are with this man’s family and friends” Sgt. Scott Stephen, detachment commander for the Shawnigan Lake RCMP, said in a media release. “We’d like to extend our appreciation to those who rendered assistance at the scene, and for the patience shown by everyone who was delayed as we completed our investigation.” The highway was completely closed for about an hour and a half, while a RCMP collision analyst/reconstructionist conducted a detailed investigation of the crash. —Black Press
Cow Bay causeway breach aimed at helping salmon
Western Stevedoring site: Group close to approval for Cowichan Estuary fish habitat improvement Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
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reaching a causeway in Cowichan Bay to give spawning fish and wildlife more habitat could happen as early as late July. Geotz Schuerholz, chairman of the Cowichan Estuary Restoration & Conservation Association, explained his group has most of the money and permits
to commission yanking about 45 feet of Westcan Terminals’ causeway. It leads to Western Stevedoring’s dormant site, and an old dock bordering the bay. The idea surrounds giving far more Cowichan River salmon a fighting chance for survival. By cutting the solid causeway, fish headed back to salt water — via the river north of the causeway — can reach the bay’s healthy southern-sector eelgrass beds for food and predator shelter. Cowichan Land Trust members have planted new eelgrass on the estuary’s south side, where Schuerholz hopes more fish reach through the breach.
“It’s an artificial dike,” he said of the roadcauseway. “We’d breach that dike by about 45 feet; the opening would be about 36 feet.” A double-lane bridge would be built over the gap. Geotechnical survey results show solid gravel deposits at the breach side, which facilitates the design of the bridge’s superstructure. CERCA’s project has $100,000 from the Southern Pacific Salmon Commission Fund. It has also applied to Fisheries for $30,000 from the river’s Sandy Pools project, in efforts to help estuary fish and wildlife. “Anything would be better than what we have now,” Schuerholz said. more on page 8
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