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Mariner Way to be closed to re-enact fatal accident

Intersection of Mariner Way and Riverview Crescent will be closed between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Tuesday for investigation into accident that claimed the life of a Coquitlam teen
Reenactment
The intersection of Mariner Way and Riverview Crescent will be closed Tuesday, May 14 from 10 a.m.to 11 a.m. for a re-enactment of a fatal accident.

Coquitlam RCMP will be shutting down the intersection of Mariner Way and Riverview Crescent Tuesday morning for an hour to re-enact a collision that took the life of a 13-year-old Coquitlam girl.

Members of the Coordinated Collision Investigation Team will drive police cars of a similar size to the vehicles involved in the March 25 crash to get more information to support the investigation.

“We reserve these (re-enactments) for the most serious investigations,” said Cpl. Michael McLaughlin.

The intersection of Mariner Way and Riverview Crescent will be closed to traffic between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Tuesday, May 14 to allow enough time for the re-enactment to take place.

All lanes will be closed to traffic during the re-enactment during which members of a special branch of the Coquitlam RCMP traffic unit will try to duplicate the speeds and trajectory of the vehicles that were involved in the accident, McLaughlin said.

“We try and replicate the conditions as much as possible,” he explained, noting that cars of roughly the same size as the original vehicles will be used, travelling at speeds equivalent to the cars in the original accident and in the same order.

“We will video tape it all and take as many measurements as possible.”

McLaughlin said the re-enactment is one of many tools the police have to try and bring closure to the serious case.

No charges will be considered until all avenues of investigation are complete.

“The closure will last about one hour and we will include intermittent openings to ease traffic flow," McLaughlin further added in a press release.“We apologize for the inconvenience, but it’s important that we do a re-enactment to understand all the circumstances that led to the death of a 13-year-old girl”.

Deborah Seol, a Grade 8 student at Montgomery middle school in Coquitlam, died in the collision at the corner of Mariner Way and Riverview Crescent.

At the time, police said a black BMW spun into a pedestrian island where she was standing with four other children, including her siblings and cousins.

Seol and a six-year-old boy were taken to hospital, but she later succumbed to her injuries, RCMP said at the time.

A GoFundMe page was set up for her family, which raised over $31,000.