12 - Wednesday, September 11, 1985 - North Shore News

WOMAN WITNESSES |
Police cruiser smashes stalled car

WHEN SHE recalls the
Saturday night accident she
witnessed involving an
RCMP police cruiser and a
stalled car, Marga Molson
stutters with emotion.

By TIMOTHY. RENSHAW

‘*No one should be
travelling that fast — no
matter what the crime,”’ says
the 54-year-old North Van-
couver teacher.

At approximately 9:50
p.m. Saturday night, Molson
says she was heading east in
her 1977 Dodge van on
Third Street in North Van-
couver. According to
Molson, a stalled vehicle was
being pushed westbound by
a lone man in the oppesite
lane. .

Suddenly, an .RCMP
cruiser travelling westbound
with lights flashing crested
Third Street hill at
Queensbury Avenue, Molson
said, “going about 120 miles
per hour with no siren on.
He was flying.’’

Molson says the speed of
the approaching police car
left her no choice but to ac-
celerate wildly in order to get
out of its way. She heard
squealing tires and the omi-

““nehag_sijta and gplinter of.
glass in ‘tan impacts9 loud

it momentarily’ left me in
shock. ! figured the guy who
had been pushing his car was
in pieces.’’

After parking her van,
Molson says she ran to the
accident scene which. was
approximately 200 feet. west
of Queensbury.:In the even-
ing gloom, she says she ini-
tially. .found: no. sign of
humanity, only the smolder-
ing wreck of a police, cruiser
now facing east, its light still
flashing and the right side of
the motor visible through its
torn-chassis.

: The, car that was previous-
ly. being pushed, she says,
was some .80 feet further
west on Third Street, its
trunk smashed open.

Eventually, she said she
located the person who had
been’ pushing the car, ap-
parently‘unhurt. As to how
he had escaped, Molson says
he told her that upon hear-
ing the squealing tires he had
immediately jumped clear.

A North Vancouver
RCMP report on the acci-
dent confirms, that. an
RCMP cruiser collided with
a vehicle on Saturday night
just west of Queensbury on
Third Street.

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Cst. Alison [rons from
Community Policing says
the officer driving the police
vehicle involved in the acci-
dent was responding to a call
for assistance from a fellow
officer shortly before 11
p.m. on Saturday night.

The vehicle hit by the
cruiser was being pushed by
two males, according to the

report. Neither the males
pushing the car nor the
police officer were injured in
the accident.

Irons says the estimated
speed of the police car has
yet to be determined.

When contacted by the
News, Frank Vanderberghe,
one of the males pushing the
car, would not comment on

the accident, saying only
that the whole business is in
the hands of lawyers. He did
say, however, that a female,
steering the pushed car at the
time, was injured in the ac-
cident.

Irons says that there is no
indication of such a person
in the initial police report of
the accident.

Police officers who subse-
quently attended the scene of
the accident, according to
Molson, “took my name but
did not ask me what I had
seen. It seemed like they just
wanted to get rid of me. Fi-
nally, 1 just got so fed up
that | walked away.’

She adds that she took
pictures of the accident scene

but all were blank when
developed.

Involved in a rear-end col-
lison in July 1984 that left
her with a ‘sroken neck,
Molson says the accident she
witnessed on Saturday night
was a horrible slice of deja
vu: ‘It’s a miracle that no
one was killed.*’

Appearing
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