| Harvey Specter | 05-09-2013 03:05 PM |
Aston was supposedly doing 200, looks the woman in the GLK was innocent. So sad, I hope the driver of the Aston gets charged, jailed and get financially wiped out. Quote:
The licence plate on the luxury sports car a witness says was responsible for Wednesday's deadly multi-vehicle pile-up on Westminster Highway at Knight Street spoke volumes: 007-KMP.
The driver of the $200,000 Aston Martin DB9 Volante was driving much like fictional British superspy 007 when she ran one redlight as he was westbound on Westminster Highway, narrowly missing a vehicle at No. 6 Road, before heading towards his fate a block to the west.
And with Richmond Mounties saying just minutes after the collision that speed—and specifically KiloMetres Per hour—was a factor, one witness reached by The Richmond Review Thursday morning estimated the rare convertible was going in the neighbourhood of 200 kilometres per hour when it set off a chain-collision, involving a white Mercedes Benz sedan, a Chrysler, and a Ford Escape, among other vehicles. The Chrysler, possibly a Pacifica, was hurtled some 100 metres into a ditch, its rear end completely caved in and left a smoking ruin.
Vancouver's Elizabeth Willis witnessed Wednesday afternoon's crash, which occurred around 3:30 p.m.
A flagger for Imperial Paving, Willis was part of a crew working on Westminster Highway, at No. 6 Road, a block east of the accident scene.
"I saw a car, I heard a car going extremely fast, 200 kilometers per hour, right through a red light, almost T-boned another vehicle, went straight through...and hit the cars sitting at the red light," she said, her voice breaking, as she walked on the scoured four-lane stretch of roadway that's currently being repaved. "It was only the one vehicle, racing through. We don't even know what kind of car it was, only that it was black."
Seconds later, after hearing what was apparently the Aston Martin's "roaring engine", she saw and heard the booming impact.
"Devastating. I saw the cars flying up in the air, and there was smoke, and I shut down the road immediately."
Within seconds, onlookers became Good Samaritans and sprang into action, helping out the victims.
One man pulled a woman from the crumpled remains of the Mercedes, which wound up on top of the Aston Martin and was missing its entire trunk.
Richmond photojournalist and Tandoori Raj Indian Restaurant owner Sukhwant Dhillon, was on his way home from his South Vancouver eatery when he came upon the carnage, which he said looked a like a war movie.
Dhillon works for The Link, an Indo-Canadian newspaper, and lives near the accident scene.
Even before emergency crews arrived, he said two crash victims had already been pulled from their vehicles, and were lying on the ground, metal, plastic and glass debris strewn everywhere.
He could see smoke coming from the Chrysler in the ditch, and said the collision must have been high-speed to hurtle the vehicle such a distance.
Dozens of people watched from the roadside as two people were taken into an air ambulance helicopter, and emergency crews rushed to extricate another victim from inside the Mercedes.
But before that person could be removed, the air ambulance departed, and emergency crews placed a plastic tarp over the body.
Richmond Mounties late Wednesday afternoon confirmed that one person was pronounced dead at the scene, and three others were either in serious or critical condition in hospital.
Dhillon spoke with the stunned driver of one car, who said he was simply stopped at the red light when the collision occurred.
Another victim was consoled by a paramedic as he pointed at the wreckage, and recounted what happened.
Late Thursday afternoon, Richmond Mounties announced a twist to the story.
The two people in the Aston Martin were women, and they were in their mid 40s. Both sustained life-threatening injuries but after surgery were listed in critical but stable condition.
Dead is a 44-year-old woman from Richmond.
Also recovering is the 30-year-old driver of another vehicle, who is also listed in critical but stable condition.
Only about 10 Aston Martin DB9s are sold annually in Canada, and the vehicle involved in the crash was the model sold between 2008 and 2011, according to someone familiar with these vehicles.
| |
