Rowbotham was killed in the July 30 incident in Dundarave involving a West Vancouver Blue Bus. Multiple agencies are now investigating.
According to Sgt. Paul Faris, patrol supervisor for the West Vancouver Police Department, just before 9:30 p.m., a 60-year-old woman was crossing Marine Drive at 25th Street, along with family members, when the driver of an eastbound bus struck her in the crosswalk.
“She was transported to Vancouver General Hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries,” Faris said.
Faris could not say what stage of its cycle the traffic light was in at the time. The bus, which was not in service at the time of the crash, was towed for inspection by the province’s Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement unit. The RCMP’s Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service has been called in to investigate the fatal collision. The B.C. Coroners Service will also file a report on the death.
Officers canvassed the area for surveillance footage, and the bus would have had multiple cameras on it, Faris said. Any other witnesses or people with dashcam footage are asked to come forward.
Friend Cynthia Bunbury described Rowbotham as a strong and resilient person who had a decorated career with Environment Canada and faced many tragedies along the way. Rowbotham came out of retirement to work in North Vancouver MP Jonathan Wilkinson’s constituency office, where the two had worked together. “She is very, very well respected and deeply loved by everybody. She was a remarkable individual, and it was just horrifically sad that she died. It’s so very hard,” Bunbury said. “We continue to mourn her and I will grieve for a long time, I think, and Jonathan will too because we respected her as a colleague, but we loved her as a friend.”
In a statement, District of West Vancouver spokeswoman Donna Powers said the municipality is treating the incident seriously. “Any loss of life in our community is very distressing and our thoughts are with everyone affected. As this is an active police investigation, the district staff have no details about the incident at this time.”
