War Veteran Died Alone at Road's Edge

[Piecemaker]

Sad for someone's life to end this way, war vet or not.

A 78-year-old Kelowna man who had fallen on hard times has been identified as the victim of a fatal hit and run Saturday morning.

Arthur Horton was discovered on the shoulder of the road in the 3100 block of Sexsmith Road just before 5 a.m. Saturday.

"Mr. Horton was a war veteran and had his medals with him when he was found," says Cst. Steve Holmes.

"He had not had a fixed residence in the past several years as he had fallen on hard times. It is a terrible tragedy that this elderly man died alone and helpless on the side of a roadway."

Holmes says the family is left with no answers as to what happened to Horton.

He says police have little details to go on as to what did happen.

"Police believe that the vehicle involved could be a GM make in the early to mid 90s and has a completely broken antenna. There may or may not be damage to the windshield of the vehicle."

Police are asking anyone with information regarding the accident to come forward and contact RCMP or Crime Stoppers.

[rookie314]

We should all be ashamed to call ourselves Canadians after hearing a story like that. To him all I can say is, I am so sorry we "forgot".

[normaM]

he had his medals with him It is indeed a sad story.

[flamingfingers]

"Holmes says the family is left with no answers as to what happened to Horton."

So, where was the family? When he fell on hard times?

[johnhenry]

,

[StraitTalk]

War veteran on the streets... Going to agree with rookie. We should be ashamed.

[MADGE]

I just replied on the homeless, and yes sometimes this is where you end up.
People just do not realize you have no one and no money, and that is what happens.
I feel awful as I am a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and if we had know we could have done something for our veterans.
Everyone goes full steam for the fire evacuees but who does anything for our lonely veterans that live on the street.

[Piecemaker]

"Holmes says the family is left with no answers as to what happened to Horton."

So, where was the family? When he fell on hard times?

Sometimes people don't tell their family when they are having difficulty. Sometimes family members are experiencing hard times themselves. Sometimes people are estranged from their family or geographically separated. That doesn't mean the one that died is not cared about. Regardless, his manner of death is a sad commentary on our community...or rather, lack of "community".
It may be only be one driver that ran him down accidently or otherwise, but it speaks to a lack of regard for a fellow human being that is becoming all too common. At this point we don't know whether or not immediate aid would have saved this man.
There have been a few other hit-and-run type encounters recently in Kelowna.

[John500]

IMO, all of society has failed in this. The poor Vet never should have fallen on hard times to begin with no matter what the reason(s) were. Just the total picture, "Poor Vet fallen on hard times" Sad and shamefull. Never should have happened.

[suburbangurl]

We should all be ashamed to call ourselves Canadians after hearing a story like that. To him all I can say is, I am so sorry we "forgot".

.

I agree it is sad that so many of us 'forget'. Our society has failed him, his fight for a better world ended in vain, i bet he wondered what he did it for. He sacraficed part of himself to fight for a better world and country, but we did nothing for him. How sad.

[firedup]

Great mathematical deductions....Does it matter if he is a vet anyway??? A man died alone ... where is the compassion for this tragic death...yeah to the RCMP that cared enough to find meaning in the life of someone he didn't even know....

[Bsuds]

Korean War 1950-53. Canadian Military personnel were involved. He would have been 20+.

[tylerbarnes]

66,665 Canadian Soldiers died in WW1
44,893 Canadian Soldiers dies in WW2
516 Canadian Soldiers died in Korea
125 Canadian Soldiers died so far in Afghanistan

and I'm sure this string wasn't meant to discuss our political stance on wars... it's to discuss the sad fact that we failed this veteran...

[JayByrd]

I'd like to touch on this a little more. This fellow was mentioned at church this morning. He was not a member of the church, but was a neighbour to several people in the congregation.

His name was Art. Art wasn't street person, although the latter years of his life were neither easy or comfortable. Art had been suffering from dementia of some sort. Up until recently, he had been living with a woman who was selling drugs out of the home they shared. The City boarded up the residence because of this, and Art had been sleeping in a shed on the property. Art had two daughters; one in Alberta, and one in Kelowna. It is believed he was on his way to her home when he was hit and killed.

I don't know enough about Art's life to say much more about him, or to pay any kind of meaningful tribute. But regardless of what he did or didn't do in his life, he didn't deserve to die alone, in the dark, on the side of the road. Since the end of his life was discussed here, I thought it was appropriate that people should at least know his name.

[Piecemaker]

Thanks JayByrd. I was wondering about "Art".