COMMUNITY MOURNS
Cars drive past a roadside memorial to Hilda Klemmer, the 83-year-old who was killed Wednesday when she was struck by a truck in marked crosswalk at Acadia Drive and 97th Avenue S.E. Klemmer’s granddaughter was also seriously hurt in the collision.
The elderly woman struck and killed by a truck in a southeast Calgary crosswalk is being remembered as a fixture in the community and the kind of neighbour anyone would want to have.
“Some of her neighbour’s grandchildren called her grandma,” Sue Meyer said a day after Hilda Klemmer was killed crossing the road at Acadia Drive and 97th Avenue S.E.
Meyer said she’ll remember her neighbour as an “icon in the neighbourhood.”
“(A neighbour) said that he just saw her that morning with her granddaughter, so just everybody was in shock that this happened and she was hit with such force,” she said.
While Meyer says she only knew Klemmer in passing, she said she would often see the 83-yearold out for walks in the community.
Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said Klemmer had lived in Acadia for more than 50 years. He said she was a kind soul and a caring neighbour.
Andy Ethier was at the intersection on Wednesday to pay his respects. He said he would see Klemmer and her granddaughter once or twice a week while out riding his scooter.
“They’d wave, we notice everybody (in the community),” he said. “And it’s nice and quiet around here until you get some (expletive) ... that speeds here, driving too fast at crosswalks and not pay attention to the signs.”
“If it’s nice, they ’d be outside like I’m doing today.”
The elderly Calgarian was walking with her 21-year-old granddaughter, crossing Acadia Drive at 97th Avenue S.E. around 11 a.m. when a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500 slammed into them.
Klemmer was killed and her granddaughter was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, but has since been upgraded to stable.
The 46-year-old driver of the truck was not injured and no charges have been laid.
Meyer was only a few blocks away when the collision happened. She said she was walking home from a nearby strip mall when she saw emergency vehicles blocking the intersection.
As she approached the scene, she could see Klemmer lying lifeless on the street as paramedics lifted the granddaughter into an ambulance.
“We have two crosswalks backto-back, and the woman and her granddaughter were struck at crosswalk No. 1, and the grandmother’s body was a few feet past crosswalk No. 2,” she said.
Meyer said she would like to see flashing signs installed at the crosswalk, adding there are “a ton of accidents” just a few blocks away at the corner of Acadia Drive and Southland Drive S.E.
Police are asking anyone who witnessed the collision to call the police traffic section at 403-5674000 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.