WEDNESDAY
October 2, 1996

OIL CHANGES...
EVERY 3 MONTHS OP. 5,000 km

ncouver municipal workers Larry McHale (left) and Stephen Scully teamed up to prevent Friday’s disastrous truck acci-

dent from being even worse, said West Vancouver Police.

Death of pedestrian sparks
fight for truck safety changes

By Michael Becker
News Editor

THE family of a North Vancouver man
struck and killed Friday by a runaway
dump truck vows it will fight to put the
brakes on unsafe commercial trucking

practices.

Bjorn Bjornson, 58, died when an overloaded truck with
malfunctioning brakes lost control on 22nd Street in West
Vancouver.

The truck struck two pedestrians on Marine Drive,
‘broadsided a sporss utility and hit a parked

Bjornson, one of the pedestrians, was pronounced dead
at Lions Gate Hospital,

His son Josh Bjornson, 22, had just returned home from
computer science classes at-Simon Fr niversity. Fle was
getting ready to go to Capers Restaurant in’ Dandarave,
where he works as a cook.

The phone rang.

“1 got called up to the hospital, From the way they told
me about it it sounded like he was in a coma or something.

They said he wasn’t responding,” said Josh. Hospital staff
broke the bad news

“My friend was a few feet away from me. There

a doctor and nu $s the
room and I felt tike my friend

a mile or two away. [ didn’t
really believe it and [kept hop-
ing it was somebody else. Tt can’t
be him. And then they brought
in his watch. | don’t know what
went through my head. You
can’t doubt any more.”

Josh identified the bod

“That's whea it really sunk. I
saw him lying on che bed and 1
just broke down. [ asked every-
body to leave. [ said a few words.
Trold him that Tloved him, tald
him that [was so proud of him
and that we'd all miss him.”

Josh believes his father was
likely on his way to the West
Vancouver library to return sev-

motivational rapes he had

borrowed.

He may have b
Walkman when he sas struck.

Said Josh, “He was always trying to make himself better.
He thought as long as he would think positive, he would act

Friday's truck crash.

n listening ta one of them on his

BJORN Bjornson ... killed in

Thursday Matnly clutdy
High 16°C, flow 9
thence trttn,

ACCIDENT

Heroes
acted
quickly

By lan Noble

News Reporter

IN the hundreds of lit-
tle dramas that play
themselves out during a
disaster like last
Friday’s dump truck
accident, the actions of
many go unnoticed or

receive passing praise.

On Friday, in the minutes after
the accident that eventually claimed
one life and brought three people to
hospital, Petro Canada employees
put out a fire, citizens attended to
the injured and dying, and the
police, ambulance and fire depart-
ments performed their duties.

The West Vancouver Police
praise the heroic efforts of West
Vancouver municipal worker Larry
McHale. He pur his fife on the line
clearing 22nd and Marine before

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield = the runaway dump truck sped

See Monster page 4

positive and positive things Would happen. He was a positive
person and positive things did happen to him except for this
unfortunate accident.”

Josh believes there shouid be more commercial
truck brake checks on the North Shore. He sup-
ports the idea of banning trucks from steeper local
roads.

“It’s just overwhelming, These people are raking
lives into their hands every time they get into these
trucks. What is it going to take to make them
understand that they are killing people?

“They killed my father, they’ve killed other peo-
ple. Where does it stop? ‘The world is missing this
wonderful person,” he sie.

The family is buying a seawall memorial bench
for Bjorn and are accepting donations for the bench
and fos legal fees to work for changes.

“We're going Co try ta tike this as fir as we can.
It’s the whole industry, We're going to work our
hardest so that other families won't have to deal
with this.”

‘To contribute, send to Wi
91603, V7V 323.

Bjorn Bjornson was bern in
Saskatchewan, but spent fis life in B.C.

He worked for a while as a teacher, was a construction
contractor in the Sunshine Coast area, and then retrained to

neouver P.O. Box

Winnyard,

See Paramedic page 3