Witnesses sought after woman killed at mall

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This article was published 01/04/2019 (2098 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg woman has died after she was struck by a dump truck while walking through the Garden City Shopping Centre parking lot Monday afternoon.

The woman’s body lay covered on the pavement for hours after police were called to the scene on the 2300 block of McPhillips Street at 3 p.m. The 57-year-old victim of the crash has been identified, but police have not publicly released her name. Her family was notified Monday.

The Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health are both probing the fatality.

“Officers believe that several people may have witnessed this incident. Anyone who may have witnessed the collision or can provide further information is asked to contact (investigators),” said WPS spokesman Const. Rob Carver.

He told reporters Tuesday investigators don’t believe alcohol or drugs were a factor, but didn’t say whether it’s believed the truck may have been speeding.

“Not only do I not have those details, but if I did I wouldn’t be able to release them, because that is part and parcel of what could be (criminal) charges,” he said.

The collision occurred in the west end of the mall parking lot, near a former Sears location currently under construction. The dump truck was being driven by a member of the construction crew working at the site, police said. The driver remained on scene following the collision.

A provincial spokeswoman told the Free Press officials will investigate under the Workplace Safety and Health Act and Regulations, adding the agency will collaborate with the WPS moving forward.

It remains unclear how long the woman’s body remained at the site, but she was eventually transported to hospital where a doctor officially pronounced her dead. Carver said front-line police officers don’t have the authority to declare a fatality on their own.

“We confirm death when a medical professional, typically a doctor, confirms death. This is often the case, someone’s transported, and we can’t say they’re deceased until a doctor says they’re deceased,” he said.

Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crash, or who has any information about the incident, to contact WPS traffic division investigators at 204-986-7085.

This latest incident was not the only vehicle-pedestrian crash on McPhillips Street in recent days. On Saturday, an elderly woman was hit while walking near Jarvis Avenue. She survived and is recovering from her injuries.

Monday’s crash also marks the fifth pedestrian fatality of 2019 and third this month. A man was killed following a crash at Osborne Street and Morley Avenue on March 20.

Days earlier, a four-year-old girl was killed after being hit by a vehicle at a pedestrian crosswalk on Isabel Street, near the Slaw Rebchuck Bridge, on March 18. On Jan. 12, a female pedestrian was killed following a two-vehicle collision near Polo Park. On Jan. 15, a 71-year-old woman was hit and killed on Henderson Highway.

Carver said while these incidents are always tragic, they all transpired under different circumstances.

“It’s absolutely unconnected to previously tragic ones we’ve had. I don’t think there’s a takeaway, but it absolutely is a valid question… I think any number of pedestrian-vehicle fatalities — we always wonder if somehow things couldn’t be done differently to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Carver said.

“But this is completely not connected and unrelated to the (others)… These are random events.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe