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
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.