A fundraiser has been launched to help one of the victims seriously injured in a five-car crash along Highway 1 in Burnaby last week, according to a family friend.
Manshur Mariwa, a foreign-trained medical professional, saw the initial crash and left his car to attend to the crash victims. It was then he was hit by another vehicle.
Saira Abrar, a close family friend of Mariwa, explains why he went to help.
“He was trying to help the victims of an earlier crash out of his good heart,” said Abrar.
“And he’s also a foreign-trained physician, so it was very natural for him to offer medical help to anyone who needs it.”
Abrar started the GoFundMe to help the family, saying Mariwa was in “really bad shape” when his wife visited him in the hospital.
“This fund will help cover some of the immediate expenses his family now faces, as his wife takes on the responsibility of caring for both him and their nine-year-old daughter,” Abrar said on the fundraiser page.
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“This is an incredibly challenging time for them, and any support would mean so much as they work through this difficult chapter.”
Mariwa is now recovering at home with the help of his family and has a long road to recovery, with a head injury, a concussion, other physical injuries, and emotional trauma, Abrar says.
She is calling on the government to make B.C.’s highways safer and improve visibility and water drainage on highways.
Corp. Michael McLaughlin with the BC Highway Patrol told 1130 NewsRadio last week that road conditions in the area of the accident appeared to be very poor.
“Not only was it dark, there was heavy rain and pooling water on the roadways, certainly that’s something we’re looking at as potential contributor to the collision,” McLaughlin said at the time.
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the provincial transportation ministry for comment.
As of Friday afternoon, the GoFundMe campaign has raised over $15,000 of its $17,000 target.