Police search for Port Coquitlam hit-and-run driver
Speeding cars a problem at intersection, local residents say
Police are looking for the driver of a truck that struck and killed a 16-year-old girl while she was in a marked crosswalk in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Annie Leung, a grade 10 student at Riverside Secondary School died in hospital early Wednesday morning after she was hit at the intersection of Mary Hill Road and Pitt River Road on Tuesday afternoon.
Mounties are looking for an older man with greying hair who was driving the black Ford F150 pickup truck with black canopy that left the scene after the girl was hit.
'We know one thing for sure — he knew what he did." —RCMP Const. Jamie Chung
The driver pulled over after he struck the girl, but only for a moment, police say.
"The driver stopped briefly to look in the direction the victim was lying," said RCMP Const. Jamie Chung. "In that brief moment, we are not sure if he was distraught or not, but we know one thing for sure — he knew what he did."
'Hits really close to home'
On Wednesday afternoon, local residents told CBC News that cars often speed through the intersection where Leung was killed.
One parent, Heather Gifford, brought a lawn chair and sat by the side of the road with her son.
I'm "making sure that kids from the middle school and the high school just get across the street safely," she said. "So nothing like this happens to any more children ... It hits really close to home. It's really awful."
Gifford said she plans to return to the intersection Thursday with fluorescent-coloured signs calling for drivers to slow down.
Kayla Ford, a Grade 11 student at Riverside Secondary School, said she did not know Leung but decided to bring flowers to the intersection where her schoolmate was killed.
"Everybody at school was grieving and a lot of teachers were crying," Ford told CBC News. "I thought it would be a good idea to come. She didn't have much here."
Ford said one of her friends knew Leung and described the teen as someone who was "always laughing" and "really smart."
"If it was one of my friends, it would impact me a lot," Ford said. "I feel bad for her family and her friends and I hope they will be able to get through this together."
Leung is one of three people killed or injured on Metro Vancouver roads in accidents on Tuesday afternoon.
A cyclist from Port Moody was pinned by a tractor-trailer rig on a busy route near a skating complex in Burnaby. Andrew Evoy, 51, was taken to hospital with serious injuries where he later died.
A 13-year-old boy was hit by a car in Vancouver, but the driver of the vehicle stayed at the scene and the youth is now listed in stable condition in hospital.