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cdnhollywood
Member
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Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 1538
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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 Posted: 11/28/05 - 12:22 Post subject: A terrible way to go
Time to re-test the taxi drivers in my city.....
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Taxi drags woman to her death in Kanata
Body of 25-year-old found on Queensway more than a kilometre from where she was hit
A woman was dragged more than a kilometre to her death after being knocked over by a taxi in a Kanata parking lot early yesterday morning.
The victim, a 25-year-old from the Ottawa area, was struck at about 2:45 a.m. at the Kanata Centrum shopping mall, and her body was found on the eastbound Queensway, shortly beyond the Kanata Road/Castlefrank Road entrance, police said.
The Queensway and other roads in the area were closed for much of the day yesterday as police reconstructed the path of the Westway taxi minivan. Starting in the middle of a parking lot between the AMC 24 Theatres, Home Outfitters and the Terry Fox bus stop, a series of orange traffic cones marked a swerving diagonal path across the lines of the parking lot.
The route continued along a service road, turned right on Kanata Road, crossed a bridge over the Queensway and turned onto the eastbound entrance ramp.
The line of pylons ended several hundred metres later, under a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Queensway, where the woman was pronounced dead.
The taxi driver continued driving away from the scene, and was pulled over some distance away after police were alerted to the incident, according to Sgt. Brian McMahon of the Ottawa police.
Since the incident started in the parking lot, under Ottawa police jurisdiction, and finished on the Queensway, which is patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police, the two forces are conducting a joint investigation.
Among the questions they were considering yesterday was whether the driver realized he had hit someone, Sgt. McMahon said.
"He was leaving the scene, but he may not have been aware of it," Sgt. McMahon said.
Police did not release the name of the driver involved. Many taxis operate late at night in the parking lots where the incident took place, serving the patrons of nearby bars like O'Connor's Irish Pub.
Police said the victim's family had requested that her name not be released. At the time of the accident, she was accompanied by two other people, one of whom was believed to be a relative, police said.
They do not believe the woman was one of the taxi's fares.
CJOH reported last night that the woman and her companions were staying at the Holiday Inn, which is attached to the shopping plaza, to avoid drinking and driving.
The incident is the second fatal collision in just more than two months involving a taxi. On Sept. 17, a Westway taxi was involved in a collision with a police cruiser at Heron Road and Riverside Drive, and 20-year-old Natalie Sylvestre was killed.
Last Friday, 24-year-old Westway driver Dereje Semunigus Lakew was charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death and two counts of dangerous operation causing bodily harm.
There have been other instances of people being dragged under vehicles, including a 2002 incident in which a woman survived being dragged a quarter kilometre along a busy Ottawa street under an OC Transpo bus. |
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