The first person who stopped at the hit and run fatality on Chief Lake Road at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19 in Prince George was a first responder coming home from work.
Having experience at accident scenes as a member of the Pilot Mountain Volunteer Fire Department, Stephen Fancy knew to slow down as soon as he saw debris from a vehicle on the road.
And then, no surprise to him, he saw the dreaded sight of a man partially lying on the road. It’s nothing that Stephen hasn’t seen before.
The second person was a good Samaritan who stopped because she knew that’s what her mother, who was a nurse before she died, would’ve done.
But Savanna Shaw had never seen anything like it in her life.
She stopped anyway, put her flashers on and parked in front of Fancy tending to the prone man.
Fancy said Shaw doesn’t even know what an impact she made on him.
“She keeps saying it was nothing but she kept me safe by putting her car between me and traffic and that way another tragedy didn’t occur,” he said.
Shaw also held the flashlight and was on the phone during the 9-1-1 call as Fancy continued to do CPR on the victim until the paramedics arrived.
Shaw says she can’t unsee what she saw and was shocked that so many people passed the scene without stopping.
“People kept passing us and only one other lady stopped,” she said. The lady who stopped was another member of the Pilot Mountain Road Volunteer Fire Department who knew Fancy.
“When the first responders arrived it was declared an active crime scene so his body was left there for a while,” Shaw said, her voice filled with emotion. “And it just sucks. I don’t even know how to begin to explain it. It’s something I’ve never seen before and hope to never see again. And if you take anything from what I’m saying there needs to be more street lights put up on that road, especially where there are side roads. If we can afford to build a Starbucks, we can afford a few lights to keep people safe. And it’s heartbreaking. We all need to drive safe.”
It was just so sad that the person who hit the pedestrian didn’t stay on the scene, Fancy said.
“That is the frustrating part of this – there is no way - by the amount of debris from the vehicle - that you didn’t know you hit somebody,” he said. “And it’s just sad that people who had nothing to do with this had to endure the trauma of having to see this and my kids saw this when my wife pulled up and the other person who stopped, her kid was in the truck. My kids saw me doing CPR on this man. I was able to explain it to them but people shouldn’t have to see this.”
To have lighting all the way down Chief Lake Road would be great, but Fancy knows it would came at great expense.
“Everybody just flies down there,” he said. “Everybody drives fast. The posted speed limit is 80 and 60 when you get closer to Foothills but everybody’s driving 100 up until the S corners where you have to slow down. Even the light deflectors they have on highways would do a tremendous amount around there and I am sure we can promote that. People just have to drive to the conditions, make sure your headlights work. And if you hit somebody, just stop. Everybody would understand why the accident happened if somebody got hit. Maybe the person was intoxicated or just scared, but the person who drove off after hitting the person probably was the one person who could’ve done the most.”
And when you’re walking, wear light clothing, he added.
“And I know high-vis clothing might seem dorky but it could save your life.”
This is the second pedestrian fatality in the Hart area this month and the incidents occurred just six days apart. During the first incident the person who struck the pedestrian did the right thing and stopped to help.
Shaw said she’d like the person who hit the man on Chief Lake Road to come forward and for those who drove by to remember basic human kindness should always come into play.
“If you hit somebody, stop,” Savanna said. “And if you see somebody in danger pull over. I would’ve regretted not pulling over. I just wish more people would’ve been there for him.”
Shaw said she writes poetry to process the trauma she has experienced in her life and she wrote this as soon as she came home Tuesday night.
We Need More Lights - The Hit and Run
by Savanna Shaw
A brisk walk along the road.
Dark and blindly it is ahead.
The crashing of a car.
A partial part of them is dead.
The heartbreak it in endures.
A family unknowing of their loss.
No pulse, his body’s cold, and yet another lost.
You drove away from fright perhaps?
Or maybe you were scared.
Were you under beer on taps?
Or just that unaware?
Just a man to strangers, and a heart to some.
Imagine what you left behind.
The pain and all the numb.
You hit and left a man for dead.
Surely that will stay.
You’re in charge of all the pain.
That family can not take away.
I was there, and on the scene.
Of what you left behind.
A brother? father? possibly.
But still one of our kind.
The lights they end too soon along
The hometown road we grew up on.
So brighten up the streets, in honour of this man.
We don’t need more coffee shops, we need a safety plan.
I saw things I’ve never seen, and watched a life just go.
There he was just at rest and ease, laying in the snow.
I hope all your hearts can feel, the trauma that we saw.
A hit and run, a life undone, and now that’s the last straw.
