Oak Bay worker killed on the job identified; police investigating 'evidence of erratic driving'
A municipal worker who was struck and killed while on the job in Oak Bay on Wednesday morning has been identified.
Steve Seekins, a 52-year-old married father of two young children, was inspecting a manhole cover with a public works crew on the sidewalk of Monterey Avenue around 8 a.m. when a black Mercedes SUV barreled toward him.
Steve Seekins is pictured. (District of Oak Bay)The vehicle was "travelling at a high rate of speed," Oak Bay police Chief Mark Fisher told Victoria radio station CFAX 1070 on Thursday.
The SUV "crossed both lanes of traffic and struck Mr. Seekins from behind, causing him to go airborne," Fisher said.
Seekins was thrown into the park on the west side of the 1700-block of Monterey Avenue, across from the Oak Bay fire and police department buildings.
He was pronounced dead at the scene while the driver of the SUV, which had crashed into a tree, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, where she remained Wednesday night.
Oak Bay police, with the assistance of a Saanich police detective, are now canvassing the area in search of witness accounts and video of the vehicle before the crash.
Witnesses told CTV News they saw a vehicle speeding down Monterey Avenue, weaving into oncoming lanes and narrowly missing a child on a bicycle just before the fatal collision.
The vehicle eventually struck a tree in the park, next to Bowker Creek. (CTV News)
"There was evidence of erratic driving just prior to this incident," Fisher said, adding the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
WorkSafeBC has launched its own investigation into the incident.
Colleagues of Seekins have started a fundraiser to support his family. The campaign had raised more than $25,000 by Thursday morning.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.