The Dundee man whose good Samaritan daughter was killed by an alleged hit-and-run driver in Canada has added his voice to calls for more witnesses to come forward to help police build up a full picture of what happened in the tragedy.
Colin Ogilvie, who is originally from Fintry, was speaking at the end of a difficult week for his family in Vancouver and back home in Dundee.
It began with the funeral service for 30-year-old daughter Charlene Reaveley, a mother of four young children, who died after she went to the aid of a couple who were in a road accident in Vancouver on February 19.
She and a 26-year-old woman from the crashed car were standing at its side when they were side-swiped by a passing Jeep Grand Cherokee that did not stop. The other woman was also killed.
Last week also saw the case of 37-year-old man Corey Slater who was arrested in connection with the deaths of the two women beginning its journey through the Canadian legal system. Slater faces 10 charges including driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol and not stopping after the collision.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are appealing for more witnesses to the tragedy to come forward. They said members of Charlene Reaveley’s family had given investigators additional information about the accident in the Coquitlam area of Vancouver but they needed public help in gathering more evidence.
Mr Ogilvie who, with his wife Mary, emigrated to Canada when Charlene was only four said, “I am backing that police call and am pleading for any witnesses who may have been in the area at the time to come forward and tell what they saw.”
Charlene’s death is not the only road accident tragedy to affect the Ogilvies, who still have many relatives in the Dundee area. On Christmas Eve 1995 Colin’s brother Brian died in a motorcycle accident on the Dundee-Forfar road.
The deaths of the two women in Vancouver have shocked the whole of Canada and the controversy has even been commented on by the country’s prime minister Stephen Harper. He has expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and has said he is open to reviewing the law to bring tougher sentences for hit-and-run drivers.