Family in mourning after big-hearted man killed in construction accident
Worker, woman fatally injured as truck rolls down hill and onto Loughheed Hwy.
The loved ones of a man killed in a workplace accident Tuesday in Coquitlam say they are devastated by the loss of a young father-to-be known for his boundless kindness and adoration of his wife.
Bobby Vanderhoef, 32, of Maple Ridge, died after an articulated dump truck rolled down a hill from a construction site onto the 2700-block of Lougheed Highway at 3:30 p.m.
Coquitlam RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Goodings said in a media release that the operator of the unoccupied truck was killed. Witnesses reported that a worker was hit when he tried to stop the truck before it careened onto Lougheed and struck two vehicles. Six people were taken to hospital.
A woman in her 60s also died but has not yet been identified. Coquitlam RCMP, the B.C. Coroners Service and WorkSafeBC are now investigating.
Vanderhoef was rushed to Royal Columbian Hospital but died of his injuries, said his cousin and best friend, 32-year-old Andre Roberge. Roberge didn’t know the details of the crash, but said it had left Vanderhoef ’s family and friends deeply upset.
Vanderhoef’s wife, Amanda, is expecting their first child, whose gender they had planned to announce at a party on Saturday.
They married last May, after meeting when they were both 14 and dating over the past five years.
Following years of travel across the country for construction work, Vanderhoef made it clear he wanted nothing more than to settle down and start a family, Roberge said.
“(Vanderhoef ) was just so happy that she was going to have his baby,” he said.
Vanderhoef also leaves behind his mother, from Barbados, his father, from Canada, two sisters and a brother. Many dozens of his grieving friends and coworkers have turned to Facebook to write messages of condolence.
No matter where Vanderhoef went, he’d run into someone who liked him, Roberge said.
“Bobby had a big heart,” he said. “Bobby would defend the weak and he would make you smile whenever you were down. He would be there for you whenever you needed anything.”
His friends and family are now coming together to support Amanda as she prepares to bring their baby into the world in the coming months.
Meanwhile, they’re faced with planning a funeral.
“The impact that Bobby had ... we’re going to need a big church,” Roberge said.
In a post to Facebook, Amanda Vanderhoef described the devastation of losing her husband and the love of her life.
She said their baby would hear every day how much their father loved them.
“I don’t know how I am going to get through this,” she wrote. “You were my everything. You were my strength, my best friend, my world. We were supposed to grow old and grey together. I love you so much and I promise to take such good care of your little one.”
Vanderhoef turned to the Christian faith a year ago after “warming up” to church in Maple Ridge, said his pastor, Jon Morrison.
Morrison officiated the Vanderhoef’s wedding. He’d never seen someone bring 13 groomsmen to a wedding before, but it spoke to the kind of relationships Vanderhoef kept, he said.
The two men grew close at Alpha, a program to help people explore Christianity, and over time their “handshakes turned into hugs.”
Vanderhoef and his then-fiancé would come over to Morrison’s home for dinner and would always bring seven-layer dip, Morrison said with a chuckle.
Morrison was at the hospital Tuesday night and joined in the agony of dozens of Vanderhoef ’s friends and family members, who wailed and punched walls as he slipped away.
“I’m deeply grieved," he said. “This is as dark as the human experience gets. Yet I have great hope that I’ll see my brother again because of the faith that we shared.”
Bobby would defend the weak and he would make you smile whenever you were down.