Car sought in
WV hit & run
investigation

A WEST Vancouver man who
‘was left for dead after being hit
- bya car on March 26 was dis-
charged from hospital on
: ‘Monday.

By Anna Marie D'Angelo
News Reporter

Peter Curt Wennberg, 28, was
- close to death after suffering a non-
‘depressed skull fracture from hitting
the car with his head.
Wennberg surprised his well-
. wishers when he began to regain
‘consciousness after Easter, accord-
‘ing to Trina du Plessis, a friend of
Wennberg’ S.
“It’s just like a miracle. That's “all we can say. Our
prayers were answered,” du Plessis said on Monday.
Wennberg was hit by a car near his home ‘n the
2400-block of Nelson Avenue in West Vancouver.

Someone got out of the car, walked back to where.

Wennberg was lying on the ground and placed
Wennberg’s jacket over his face.

* West Vancouver Police Det..Tim Pollitt said that
, Wennberg was likely carrying his jacket just before he
was hit by the cdr.

Wennberg, a bush pilot and former Hillside sec-
ondary ‘student, had been at Gastown’s Town Pump
before coming home that night.

_ A number of fellow West Vancouverites were at the
cabaret to see a show by the popular West Vancouver
band, She Stole My Beer.

..-/ After issuing a public plea for help in solving the
" case, the police said someone came forward and stated
‘that Wennberg left the cabaret a! 2:15 a.m.

TRINA DU PLESSIS ... friend
of Curt Wennberg says acci-
dent victim has lost memory
of the last six months.

Wennberg was found by one of
his roommate's friends at 2:38 a.m,

Du Plessis said the bush pilot
spent about two weeks in St. Paul’s
Hospital intensive care unit before
being transferred to a neurology
ward,

She said Wennberg does not
remember anything of that night
and seems to have lost the fast six
months of his memory.

His reaction to the hit and run?

“He was pissed off? said du
Plessis.

She added that Wennberg's per-
sonality is 90%" of what it was
before the accident.

“Pete blew us away when the
doctors had totally prepared us for
the worst, and we go in there and
he'll laugh or show all his emo-
tions,” said du Plessis.

Wennberg is walking with assis-
tance, talking and eating on his own.
He recognizes all his friends and
family.

Du Plessis said that Wennberg suffers intense pain
from the head injury and cannot see out of one eye. His
other eye is also impaired.

She said Wennberg will likely spend about six
months at G.F. Strong rehabilitation centre in
Vancouver,

Meanwhile the police continue to investigate the hit
and run incident.

The car involved is believed to have been a mid- to
full-sized model such as a Mercedes or a Monte Carlo.
A light truck such as a Jeep CJ 4x4 would also fit the
skid marks, according to the police.

According to Pollitt the police still don’t know how
Wennberg got home on the night he was hit.

Pollitt said the car that hit Wennberg was not specd-
ing.

Anyone with information about the accident should
call the West Vancouver Police at 922-4141 or
CrimeStoppers at 669-8477.

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

NATIVE CARVERS James Lewis (left) and Wayne Carlick will
be in attendance as their most recent totem pole is blessed
and unveiled on Sunday, May 14, at 1 p.m. at the Capilano
Suspension Bridge. “Admission.is free to the North
Vancouver attraction between noon and 2 p.m. en Mother’s
Day. The totem pole is the third created by the carvers for
display at the Suspension Bridge (3735 Capilano Rd., North
Vancouver).

W. Van keeper
states his case

From page 1

ing lighthouses in an uncaring manner are untrue.
But Graham, who is also vice-president of the light- .

aN BCTV cameraman experienced
the best and worst that) North
Vancouver teenagers can offer on
Saturday.

: By Anna Marie D'Angelo
“News Reporter :

After filming * ‘articulate and mature”
teens at a Deep Cove drop-in centre,
“cameraman Kiffa Roberts was punched
in the face by a 17- ~year-old hanging out

ear the 7- Eleven convenience store in

Edgemont Village.

.: “He decided to attack me which
“means, of course, I’m going to take his
“picture with vigilance because it stops

being news’ gathering and starts being

evidence,” said Roberts, 32, on Tuesday.
_. + Roberts said the BCTV crew looked
“in Lynn Valley and the Westview shop-

"ping centre for.kids hanging out before

going further west and coming across an

“Apparently popular parking lot in

"Edgemont Village. '
</ “We decided to get pictures of them
and even. talk to ther,” Roberts said of
the 11:30 p.m. incident.

“The group sort of, slowly moved
raway, taunting and making a fuss and
“comments,” said Roberts.

BCTV reporter Geoff Bell tried to

66 7 was guite
surprised. This kid was
driving a late model |
Acura. And then there
was a Nissan Pathfinder
there; cars I can’t
| afford. 99

— BCTV cameraman Kiffa Roberts

stop the angry teenager from attacking
Roberts on the public street.
Bell was also assauited in the inci-

dent.

Said Roberts, “I was vulnerable. You

“have a blind side. I am carrying a 30-Ib,

camera. You. can’t put it down and
leave.”

.. Roberts, a two-year veteran ‘of
BCTV. said the TV crew was “well out-
numbered” by 20 teenagers near the
hangout.

Roberts denies provoking any of the
teens, an accusation he says was later
made by one of the teens” parents.

Roberts said the youth in question
bottomed out his car near the 7-Eleven
parking lot in front of the camera before

getting out and going for the camera-

man.

“I was quite surprised. This kid was
driving a late model Acura. And then
there was a Nissan Pathfinder there; cars
I can’t afford.” said Roberts.

In contrast, Roberts described the
teens he filmed earlier that night at the
Myrtle Park Drop-in as being “great.”
The drop-in centre is’ operated through
the Seycove Community Centre.

i"They (the teens) are really. nice peo-
ple. They were responsible and con-
cemed about violence,” said Roberts.

“But, of course, we had to get kids
who were not hanging out at the drop-in

‘centre,” he said.

. Roberts said he wants the youth that
hit him charged.

‘Just like your (News) photogra-
phers, if we don’ t press charges, we are
walking targets,” said Roberts.

The North Vancouver RCMP seized.

the videocassette for evidence.

The youth was arrested the same |

night.
| Police are investigating the incident.

keepers’ union, was less sympathetic to bureaucrats.
He told the News coast guard’ bureaucrats are
attempting to keep the last slice of a Shrinking funding
pie for themselves.
Bureaucrats, he ‘said, are “like a “scared octopus

devouring its tentacles.”

Graham welcomed the opportunity to bend Tobin's
ear without his words being fi filtered by bureaucrats.

“This is a big opportunity.” he said, adding he rel-
ished the chance to tell Tobin how he’s been misled on
issues of cost, equipment performance and safety.

Cape Mudge lightkeeper Jim Abram said Tobin's
visit “went pretty well.

: “| think the minister is going to learn some things on
the trip he hasn‘t found out so far.”

Meanwhile, a report on consultations between B.C.
residents and a panel of bureaucrats and lighthouse.
keepers on the destaffing plan was released recently.

The report, culled from the submissions of 1.397
residents addressing the Lightstation Services Project
Team earlier this year, called the opposition to
destaffing “widespread, often vehement and over-

‘whelming.”

The consultations took place in 28 communities in
B.C., including a January event in North Vancouver.

Opponents of destaffing slammed automated weath-
er Stations, saying they do not provide accurate data,
stated the report. In North Vancouver, the vast majority
of the audience denounced coast guard management’s
plans. They reiterated concerns that detailed cost-sav-
Ings estimates were not available and applauded the
lightkeeper’s role in maintaining safety on the water.
In Ottawa last week, Senator Pat Carney, chairman
of a Senate committee, called on Tobin to halt the coast
guard’s destaffing plans.