The death of a 49-year-old woman Thursday morning in a collision between a concrete truck and a car has revived the issue of removing heavy vehicle traffic from the King Edward area.

Police closed off the intersection of King Edward Avenue and St. Patrick Street for five hours following the fatal two-vehicle accident, which happened just before 10 a.m.

The truck was heading south on King Edward and the Toyota, driven by Samantha Wong, was westbound on St. Patrick when the collision occurred. The impact heavily damaged the car. Wong was rushed to the General campus of The Ottawa Hospital and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. The 56-year-old male truck driver was not injured. They were the only occupants of the vehicles.

Sam Wong, 49, was at work when he got a call from the hospital about his wife. When they suggested he bring along someone to drive him to the emergency room, he was prepared for the worst.

“I had a gut feeling,” he said. “I’ve seen these situations before.”

The couple and their sons, Kenneth, 16 and Michael, 15, had a family breakfast of bacon and eggs at their home in Gloucester Thursday morning before Sam drove his sons to school.

Samantha had likely planned to stop by the Chinese embassy on St. Patrick to finalize the paperwork for her visa before heading to work at Mendes Toyota. She was to leave for China on Tuesday, to visit her mother.

Wong and his family are dealing with the sudden loss of a “very, very caring” wife and mother.

“Everybody’s taking it very hard,” he said. “The boys really miss her big-time.”

Wong was fielding calls from friends and trying to track down his wife’s brother into Thursday evening.

When paramedics arrived, she showed no vital signs, and attempts to resuscitate her failed.

At the hospital, Wong was told that his wife likely died on impact.

The truck is owned by St. Marys Cement Group. A spokesman for the company would not comment.

Yesterday’s death adds to the list of traffic fatalities and injuries in the Lowertown area. Since 1997, at least five people have been killed and 26 injured in large vehicle incidents.

According to Lowertown Community Association president Angela Rickman, more than 3,500 trucks and 50,000 cars use King Edward Avenue daily driving to and from the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge.

Rickman says it’s time to make the area safer by limiting traffic.

“We need a new bridge, we need action on it,” said Rickman. “The only action we’ve had is more delay. To say a glacial pace is an insult to glaciers. This is ridiculous.

“We’ve got a number of levels of government that need to step in here and put their money where their mouth is.”

The presence of the bridge and the heavy traffic it attracts has an impact on life in the area.

“When I first started working here it was very startling,” said Zosia Religa, who works across from the crash site at Renaissance Holistic Health. “It felt like there was an earthquake.

“I would really like it if they could move the traffic elsewhere. They (the trucks) move at such fast speeds. It’s very noisy and there’s a lot of pollution.”

Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur said she will continue to lobby the federal and Quebec provincial governments for a new bridge.

Meanwhile, a 41-year-old man was fighting for his life Thursday night after his scooter collided with a car near Merivale Road, sending him to hospital with serious head injuries, a collapsed lung and broken legs, according to paramedics.

The woman driving the car suffered minor back injuries and was also transported to hospital. The collision occurred around 7:30 a.m. near Merivale between Baseline Road and Kirkwood Avenue. Police closed Merivale to north- and south-bound traffic for several hours following the collision.

source: The Ottawa Citizen