The Crown has dropped its only charge against a West Vancouver Blue Bus driver at the wheel of a bus that struck and killed a pedestrian in Dundarave.
The incident happened on July 30, 2021 at the intersection of Marine Drive and 25th Street in West Vancouver. According to police reports at the time, the victim, a 60-year-old woman, was crossing the street with a family member in the crosswalk when she was struck by the bus, which was turning left at the time. She was transported to Vancouver General Hospital but succumbed to her injuries.
The victim’s name was Victoria Rowbotham.
After a lengthy investigation by the West Vancouver police and the Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service, the Crown swore one Motor Vehicle Act charge of driving without due care and attention against Lixia Yu, a 60-year-old Vancouver resident.
Yu was scheduled to go to trial on June 3, but on May 29, the Crown dropped the charge.
Reached for an explanation, a spokesperson for the BC Prosecution Service sent a statement.
“The decision to stay the charges in this case was made after further information was received by the prosecutor with conduct of the file,” it read. “After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials, the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard could no longer be met. In these circumstances a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action.”
The statement did not include any specifics related to the case, but in order to go ahead with a prosecution, the Crown must believe there is a substantial likelihood of conviction, and that proceeding would be in the public interest.
Yu’s lawyer Tom Doust declined to comment on the charges being stayed, but at a court appearance on May 15, he described the Crown’s case being “almost entirely expert-driven,” with little direct evidence of what happened in the moments leading up to the collision.
“The video is lacking. The bus has got cameras all around it, cameras in it, but nowhere is this pedestrian picked up. So it’s a bit of a mystery,” he said.
The District of West Vancouver would not say whether Yu remains employed as a local bus driver.
