GoFundMe account created to help family of woman who was killed crossing a Dartmouth street
A GoFundMe account has been created to help the family of a woman who was struck and killed while crossing a street in Dartmouth Wednesday.
Suete Chan, 27, had moved to Nova Scotia from Hong Kong to work as the marketing manager for Fairechild Clothing.
She was just days away from her 28th birthday and had plans to celebrate by attending her first ever hockey game. However, as she walked to work, everything changed.
“She would talk to her parents on her way to work every day on the phone,” says Tabitha Osler, Chan’s boss.
“I know she was talking to them when she got hit.”
Chan’s parents, who live in Hong Kong, would learn their daughter was struck by a vehicle at a crosswalk on Pleasant Street and died later that day in hospital.
Halifax Regional Police ticketed a driver for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The ticket has not been tested in court.
Olser remembers her colleague as an avid traveler and photographer, with close friendships.
“She’s just very sweet and pure,” says Osler.
“My role now is to support her family, in her honour, in every possible way that I can and I will.”
Osler launched a GoFundMe page to help Chan’s parents and more than $64,000 has been raised.
Osler is also raising questions, like whether the street can be redesigned.
“You should never have a four lane crossing without any sort of notification to slow cars down that they notice,” says Osler.
Area councillor Sam Austin says Chan is the second person to die while walking on that stretch of Pleasant Street in the last two and a half years.
“I spoke to the director of transportation that afternoon,” says Austin.
“Staff are going to take a detailed look at this section where there have been two deaths along this stretch of road.”
Norm Collins, a crosswalk safety advocate has several suggestions on how the road can be improved, including adding a concrete island in the middle of the road, rumble strips ahead of the crosswalk, crosswalk flags and more lights at eye level.
“No one thing is absolute and certainly nothing will guarantee that tragedies won’t occur, but every additional thing and measure that’s put up around these dangerous intersections and crosswalks has to help,” says Collins.
“The rumble strips strike me as a very inexpensive easy (thing) and it’s just another trigger to the driver there’s something happening up ahead.”
Osler plans to have her company Fairechild Clothing pay for Chan’s parents to come to Nova Scotia in the next few days. She says she will help with a translator and whatever is needed.
The money raised through the GoFundMe page will go to Chan’s parents. She was their only child.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.