Iqaluit woman crushed by city vehicle

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

A 39-year-old Iqaluit woman is dead after being crushed by a municipal vehicle near the city’s public health centre Tuesday afternoon.

Margaret Jeffrey was leaving the public health building just after 3 p.m. with her daughter and a biological granddaughter she adopted at birth. They had just crossed Kuugalaak, a small creek in the centre of town, to get to the main road.

Witnesses recalled hearing the repeated beeping noise of a municipal vehicle in reverse mode. Then the beeping stopped.

Jeffrey was carrying her 11-month-old adopted daughter in her amauti at the time of the accident. The baby was treated at Baffin Regional Hospital for a broken leg and held for observation.

Jeffrey died two hours after arriving at the hospital.

Cpl. Ed Anderson said she suffered severe leg and abdomen injuries. “I’ve been led to believe that the vehicle actually ran over her,” he said in an interview on Wednesday morning.

Jeffrey’s other daughter was not injured.

By press-time this week, RCMP had not laid any charges.

“You can well imagine what the driver of that piece of machinery must feel right now,” Anderson said.

The driver has been taken off the road indefinitely, said Ian Freemantle, the city’s chief administrative officer. He refused to comment further until he received copies of the RCMP and coroner’s reports.

The vehicle, a front-end loader, was seized by police as part of the investigation.

Jeffrey is the third person to be killed by a City of Iqaluit vehicle in less than three years. Eyuka Qupapik died instantly after she was struck by a snowplow in front of NorthMart in December 2000. Sheila Mathewsie, 4, died after being struck by a sewer truck while crossing Apex Road near Happy Valley this past April.

Tim Neily, the territory’s administrative coroner, said his office is considering conducting an inquest. However, he said, an inquest will not be called until police decide whether to lay criminal charges, and until those charges have been dealt with in court.

Margaret Jeffrey was the mother of three children: Francis, a student at Inuksuk High School; Elizabeth, the biological mother of the infant Margaret adopted; and Mark, who has been charged with the murder of 13-year-old Jennifer Naglingniq and is awaiting trial in a southern prison.

Margaret was present during one of Mark’s first court appearances in April. As he was being escorted through the courthouse, she hugged him and told him to read the Bible.