On a glorious, sunny morning, a young woman stepped off the curb. She walked into a marked crosswalk, the crossing light in her favour, traversing a busy intersection in downtown Victoria.
She never got to the far curb.
A tour bus approaching from her right side bowled her over as the driver completed a turn northbound onto Douglas Street.
Yuka Imaizumi, 27, died at the scene of the accident. The Japanese woman worked in the kitchen at Cafe Brio after completing an English-as-a-second-language program. She also studied French and expressed a wish on her Facebook page to see the world.
Ms. Imaizumi liked karaoke, the television show Friends, and the famous baseball player from her homeland known by the single name Ichiro.
Crossing the street is a banal act until it isn't.
The fatal accident led city Councillor Lisa Helps to offer a safety suggestion for a troubling intersection at which three streets converge. She used social media to promote the possibility of adopting a pedestrian scramble. On every third turn of the signal, all vehicles would be halted in favour of pedestrians-only crossings.
The fatality is troubling for Victoria, a city which plays host to many tourists and out-of-town guests. Language students are a familiar sight at downtown coffee shops, where they practice conversational skills over steaming cups of latte.
Some programs involve foreign students living with local families, so the terrible death of a young resident foreigner touched many homes.
Traffic has been an issue in the city this summer. Police announced a crackdown on cyclists and skateboarders using downtown sidewalks. Earlier this month, police warned taxis and buses serving the cruise-ship berths to slow down while driving through residential neighbourhoods.
The month opened with a horse being spooked in Chinatown. The carriage it was pulling tipped over and the horse raced through the streets. The accident happened after the horse was bumped by a tour bus.
On Monday, police taped off the intersection to allow investigators to take measurements at the accident scene. The 44-year-old driver of the Horizon tour bus pulled over and was described as co-operating with police. The destination sign above the front windshield read, "WRONG BUS."
Ms. Imaizumi's death eerily mirrored another accident 13 years earlier at the same intersection in the same crosswalk. It also involved a tour bus turning north onto Douglas Street.
On a rainy February evening in 1999, an International Stage Lines bus ran over a newlywed couple who had arrived in the city earlier in the day. They were returning to their bed-and-breakfast room after taking in a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Royal BC Museum.
The groom, Michael Misanchuk, 27, was killed instantly. The bride, Samantha Misanchuk, 29, suffered serious injuries. The bus driver fled and was later sentenced to nine months in prison for the hit and run.
The pain of the loss is still felt keenly at his parents' home in Saskatoon.
"How are the Misanchuks coping?" his mother, Linda Misanchuk, wrote in response to an enquiry. "We have no choice but to do our best to recover and thrive – we can't just curl up in a corner and wither away, although there were times I sure felt like it."
The family attended the bus driver's trial in Victoria more than a decade ago, expressing frustration that more serious criminal charges had not been filed.
A scholarship at the University of Saskatchewan was established in Michael's name. For many years, the parents were invited to the presentation of the scholarship, though the practice has lapsed in recent years. As well, a student debate trophy bearing his name is awarded annually.
His sister said she is not sure whether it is worse to lose one's own sibling, or to watch one's parents grieve the loss of their only son.
Michael Misanchuk operated a graphic-design business and was trained as a certified sound engineer. As a boy, he liked a Dr. Seuss book to be read to him at bedtime. He played the trumpet in school and attended Ukrainian dance school. He met his wife when he was in Grade 12 as they played a married couple in a stage play. They married in Florence, Italy, just seven months before traveling to Victoria to attend the Leonardo exhibition.
A small paid notice appears in the StarPhoenix newspaper every year on the anniversary of his death. It consists of his full name, his birth date and his death date, a simple memorial that says so little, yet implies so much.