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Two dead, one injured in tragic week in Pemberton

With files from Clare Ogilvie It has been a horrific week in Pemberton, with two fatal car accidents and one serious injury occurring on Highway 99 in a five-day period. Following a fatal car accident on Tuesday, Sept.
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Avalene Fraser and March Brodeur tragically both lost their lives in two seperate car accidents on Highway 99 near Pemberton this past week.

With files from Clare Ogilvie

It has been a horrific week in Pemberton, with two fatal car accidents and one serious injury occurring on Highway 99 in a five-day period.

Following a fatal car accident on Tuesday, Sept. 18, a man was killed on Friday, Sept. 21 and another man was in critical care at Vancouver General Hospital following an accident that occurred on Saturday, Sept. 22.

All three accidents involved either speed or alcohol.

Marc Brodeur, 25, died at approximately 7:30 Friday morning while driving from his home in Pemberton to a breakfast meeting in Whistler. He was on an 80 km/h curve with a 60 km/h cautionary sign near Narin Falls when his car skidded off the road and 200 metres down the embankment. No other cars were involved in the accident.

Police found his 1992 Honda Civic severely damaged and Brodeur, who had not been wearing a seatbelt, had suffered serious injuries. Attempts to revive him with CPR were unsuccessful.

The second crash occurred at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning near the Green River rail crossing. Darrel Reid, 42, was traveling north to Pemberton from Whistler when his car went off road right and rolled over, ejecting Reid from the vehicle. According to RCMP Cpl. Paul Vadik, Reid was intoxicated and speeding at the time of the accident.

After arriving on the scene, Fire Rescue and Ambulance personnel rushed Reid to the Whistler Medical Centre and then airlifted him to VGH, where he remains in critical care, suffering from severe spinal injuries and internal bleeding.

On Sept. 18 Avalene Fraser was killed when her car went off the road approximately five kilometres north of Pemberton and hit a tree.

The series of accidents has rocked the Pemberton community. Mayor Jordan Sturdy, who was a close friend of Brodeur’s, is asking people to slow down when traveling the highway.

“This can never be a political issue for me. It has broken our family apart,” said Sturdy.

“All I can say is that all of these things are tragic, and that I encourage people to slow down and wear their seatbelt and take their time, and that life is very fragile.”

Cpl. Vadik said that RCMP officers are “dropping the hammer” to crack down on the notorious speeding that occurs on this stretch of highway.

According to Vadik, RCMP officers patrolled the highway from 6:30 to 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, laying a total of 40 charges for speeding.

“And we’re not just talking 10 kilometres over the speed limit. We are talking 20 to 50 km/h over the speed limit,” said Vadik.

“Unfortunately this is not a question of if this is going to happen again, it is a question of when,” he said.

He added that eight people have been killed in highway accidents near Pemberton this year. This is a significant increase from pervious years, with no fatalities recorded in 2005-06 and only two for 2004-05.

Vadik said a meeting will be held involving police, fire, ambulance and the coroner and other leaders in the community to discuss the increase in fatal accidents in the area.

The deaths of Brodeur and Fraser have left a hole in the Pemberton community. Brodeur lived on North Arm Farms with Mayor Jordan Sturdy and was known as “Mr. Farmer’s Market”. Since moving to Pemberton from Quebec four years ago, he had become very active in the local agriculture scene.

“He had a pretty big presence in Whistler — in terms of the restaurants anyways — with the chefs that he dealt with and all the guys in the kitchens and stuff… And the Whistler Farmer’s Market, he basically was the Whistler Farmer’s Market,” said Trish Sturdy, adding that a flower memorial was set up for Brodeur at the market last Sunday.

“We’re getting flooded with letters here. Just from people from Pemberton and neighbours and stuff, people who knew him,” she said.

According to Jordan Sturdy, Brodeur was a director with the Pemberton Valley Trails Association, as well as an active member with the Alpine Club, where he was learning about mountaineering.

“He was my farm manager. He was my confident. He was my ally, he was my salesman, he was my family,” said Jordan Sturdy.

“It has been really hard for me. Yesterday I was filling the group in order to plant garlic, because all the workers at the farm, we all decided that life goes on and we have to just carry on. And Marc would not want us to just forget harvest and forget the future. And he is all about the future. ’Cause that is what agriculture is, you are always thinking about next year, and the year after,” he said.

Brodeur was also going to be a participant in the new Sea to Sky Leadership cohort and was on his way to the opening breakfast at the time of his accident.

William Roberts, organizer of the Leadership program, said that the current cohort will be dedicated to honoring the memory of Brodeur.

A memorial will be held for Brodeur Saturday, Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. at North Arm Farms.

Fraser, 42, who was killed in a single-car accident, was also a very involved member in the community. She moved to Whistler from the Slocan Valley eight years ago because she loved the mountains and she loved to ski.

The mother of two girls, aged 13 and 12, would often gleefully tell her friends how many days she spent on the mountains, often taking the time to just really enjoy one run.

“We would we waiting at school and she would always be late running across the parking lot in her ski boots and saying, ‘I just had the best day on the mountain,’ and it would be hailing,” said close friend Mei McCurdy, laughing at the memory.

“We would all look at her and I would think to myself if I could just one day have that same feeling.”

McCurdy described Fraser, who had lived through some trying times, as a sunflower.

“Out of all of our big garden of friends she was the biggest and the brightest and the most fragrant and always the most gregarious. She would always have a smile on her face.”

McCurdy said the last several days have been like a roller coaster for the daughters, Nicola and Marlee, and their father Henk Andree-Wiltens.

The three of them had recently moved to Pemberton and Fraser, who was separated from Andree-Wiltens, was in the process of moving too.

“For a lot of us and for the children too I don’t think it has quite sunk in that she has gone,” said McCurdy.

“The outpouring of love and support from both communities has been absolutely overwhelming. They have not been in Pemberton for very long and they are very touched by it.

“The night it happened there were so many people at the house. (Andree-Wiltens) just can’t express his gratitude enough. All these kids were there, they showed up in their pajamas that night, and he is so amazingly overwhelmed by all the support that has been given.”

A trust fund has been set up for the children in their names. Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so at the North Shore Credit Union, Branch 13 at Nesters.

Already Fraser’s colleagues at Club Intrawest have decided to donate $50 from every sale they make for the next year to the accounts. Club Intrawest in Vancouver will match any funds that are raised this way as well.

“That will add up to a significant amount for her children’s education and we wanted to honour her memory that way,” said Don Stevenson, director of sales at Club Intrawest.

He recalled that at a recent training session Fraser was asked to list 30 things she wanted to accomplish.

“Avalene got up to 50 while everyone else was still scratching their heads,” he said.

“We also had to say three things that were already accomplished that you were really proud of. The first thing that she was proud of was that she was a great mom and had beautiful daughters. The second was that she was proud that she had a degree from film school, and number three… was that she was loyal to Intrawest even when it was tough.”

Club Intrawest is also producing a pin showing the mountains with Fraser’s name across them.