Highway deaths in Valley escalateWeekend fatalities occur near Chester, Yarmouth, Coldbrook
By IAN FAIRCLOUGH Valley Bureau and RENEE STEVENS
Sun. Nov 25 - 4:46 AM
A motorcyclist has become the 10th person in less than a month to die on the highways of the Annapolis Valley.
Brian Arnold Munroe, 49, of Kentville was travelling east on Highway 1 in Coldbrook near the Shell service station at the intersection of Newcombe Boulevard when his Kawasaki bike collided with a car that had pulled into the turning lane about 6 p.m. Friday.
It was one of three fatal crashes in Nova Scotia in the past two days. A man died
It was one of three fatal crashes in Nova Scotia in the past two days. A man died on Highway 103 on the South Shore early Saturday morning after a two-car collision. Another man died on Highway 101 near the Port Maitland exit, also in a two-car crash.
Investigators in Coldbrook said they are trying to find out exactly what happened and weren’t ready to say what caused the crash.
Police, firefighters and paramedics were called to the scene, with initial reports that the motorcycle driver was unresponsive and lying in the road. He was taken to Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville before being transferred to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.
RCMP Const. Sharon Johnson said the man died in the hospital Saturday afternoon.
The 18-year-old man driving the car was not hurt.
Police said alcohol, speed and the weather were not considered to be factors in the collision.
But the RCMP said alcohol was believed to have been involved in the two-vehicle fatal crash early Saturday on Highway 103 at East River, near Chester. A 41-year-old man died in that collision and a 23-year-old woman was injured.
RCMP said a Pontiac Grand Am and a Chevrolet half-ton truck collided near Exit 7 in East River at about 12:55 a.m.
The driver of the truck, a Lunenburg County man, was taken to the QEII in Halifax. He died in hospital.
The woman driving the Grand Am, also from Lunenburg County, underwent surgery in the Halifax hospital and was reported to be in stable condition on Saturday evening.
Police said the woman, who was wearing a seatbelt, was trapped in the vehicle when officers arrived.
Const. Andrew Young of South Shore Traffic Services said it took officers about 45 minutes to extract her from the vehicle using the Jaws of Life.
The man who died may have been driving under the influence of alcohol, Const. Young said.
In southwestern Nova Scotia, a 44-year-old man was also killed on Saturday in a two-car crash on Highway 101 just west of the Port Maitland exit.
Yarmouth-area RCMP said one vehicle crossed the centre line and hit the other. Police said the deceased, who wasn’t named, was not wearing a seatbelt. The other driver was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The past few weeks have been tragic ones on highways in the Annapolis Valley, with 10 people dying in six crashes between Oct. 31 and Friday.
Friday’s motorcycle crash came just two days after four people died in a two-car collision outside Windsor.
Harry Gillott, 67, and his wife, Maxine, were killed when their car was struck head-on by a sports car that crossed the centre line on Wentworth Road.
A service for the Upper Burlington couple was planned for 2 p.m. today at Lindsay’s Funeral Home in Windsor.
Justin Benjamin, 17, of Windsor, a passenger in the oncoming car, will be remembered in a service Monday at 2 p.m. at the same funeral home, and a service for the driver of the car, 24-year-old Mark Faulkner of Centre Burlington, will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, also at Lindsay’s Funeral Home.
