The year 2011 was marked with sadness when a beloved mother and neighbour was killed in a tragic traffic accident and the Fox family lost the indomitable Betty Fox. However, spirits were lifted when a new memorial to Terry Fox was unveiled at B.C. Place Stadium.
A tight-knit Coquitlam neighbourhood mourned and Tri-City residents were shocked and angry after the hit-and-run deaths of Charlene Reaveley and Lorraine Cruz earlier this year.
Reaveley, who lived in the Meadowbrook area hemmed in between Westwood Street, Lougheed Highway and Dewdney Trunk Road, was active in the community and known to open her doors to neighbourhood children.
Fundraising efforts were set up all over the city, initially to help Reaveley's husband Dan and their four young children. As donations poured in, the Charlene Reaveley Children's Charity was launched to help kids coping with the trauma of losing a close family member or parent.
The accident that took two lives occurred in February along Lougheed Highway near Pitt River Road when Reaveley got out of her vehicle to assist Cruz, who had been in a minor accident.
Both woman were struck and killed by a driver, who fled the scene. The vehicle was found in the Cape Horn area and a short time later, Cory Sater, a 37-year-old Coquitlam resident, was arrested and charged with two counts of impaired driving causing death and one count of impaired driving causing bodily harm. He is set to go to trial in 2013.
Michael Bennett, Lorraine Cruz's stepfather, said the incident crushed his family and Cruz's boyfriend, Paulo Calimahin, who was seriously injured in the crash. He described his daughter as a beautiful person and said his family still doesn't understand how the tragedy happened.
