The photo at yet another memorial site set up along Lougheed Highway shows a young man hamming it up for the camera with his girlfriend. Pasted on to the photo that rests on the bank a few metres from speeding traffic, is a hand-drawn heart and the message ‘I love you always.’
The cross resting on the bank bears the name Cory Wik and according to a gofundme description, he would have helped anybody.
“He is remembered as the humble person he was, by many, who would give his last shirt off his back to anyone, even if he didn’t like them,” says Trina Marie who set up the Help Us Say Goodbye to Cory Wik page.
“There truly was not an evil bone in his body, he just wasn’t made that way. He supported so many in their times of weakness and helped them through their darkest moments.”
According to Ridge Meadows RCMP, the three-vehicle crash, involving a car, SUV and pickup truck, happened at about 9 a.m. Thursday, (Feb. 5) in the 25500-block of Lougheed Highway.
One person died at the scene and three others were taken to hospital.
“The initial investigation has revealed that wet weather and roads, along with speed, are contributors to this crash,” said Cpl. Alanna Dunlop.
The accident blocked the highway for hours as local RCMP and the force’s integrated crash analyst reconstructionist services tried to figure out what happened.
The fatality followed a fatal motorcycle crash a week before, at the corner of Lougheed Highway and 105th Avenue on Jan. 29.
On the weekend, Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read said on Vancouver TV news that the provincial government needs to improve Lougheed Highway at the 105th Ave. intersection, extending the concrete median barriers from 240th to 272nd streets, widening the Haney Bypass and widening to four lanes the remainder of the Lougheed Highway to 287th Street and improving the corner of 222nd Street and Lougheed.
“Given that 85 per cent of our population relies on vehicles, and given that our population is growing exponentially, we need our partners in the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to come to the table with some money to improve the east-west corridor,” she said on Facebook.