Father of boy killed in Horseshoe Bay crash asks for memorial

The father of the boy who died in a bus-related accident in Horseshoe Bay has posted a message on an online fundraiser for the family.

In the message, he asked for a memorial at the scene of the accident in Horseshoe Bay.

“I also would like Translink […] to build a small memorial at Horseshoe Bay and bring happiness and joy to that beautiful Terminal.”

Clineu Machado, who lost his four-year-old son Leonardo in the accident, wrote the message from the perspective of Leonardo.

In the message, he says that Leonardo liked taking transit. He loved riding the bus or the SkyTrain as much as watching them go past.

“Since I was born, my parents have always used buses to go everywhere in this city with my stroller along and I started falling in love with buses and SkyTrain’s,” Machado wrote in the note on the online fundraiser.

The note reads that Leonardo calls bus drivers his friends. “They became my best friends and they brought me everywhere around this beautiful city.”

Mother remains in hospital with serious injuries

“When I started walking at the age of two years, I started grabbing my mom’s hands or my father’s hands and then hauling them to the nearby bus stop just a block from my home, just to see the buses driving by and I wave at them and laugh and laugh!,” the message said.

When the accident happened, Leonardo was with his mother, Silvana, who sustained serious injuries. She remains in the hospital.

The message continues, “You must be sad and I am too, when you heard about the Horseshoe Bay accident and that my best friend, the bus, separated me from my best friend in life, yes … my Mom.”

Machado writes that his wife “could not be in better hands” at the Vancouver General Hospital. He asks the public if they “could help her to stay alive […] and maybe bring a flower to my new heroes, the nurses and doctors at VGH?”

“[I hope] she gets better and happy as she always was every day before! This is what I want more than anything and for my father.”

Father wants to donate to victims of other tragic accidents

He says that his friends who drove him around the city “are devastated and impacted by what happened to me.”

Bringing a flower to the bus drivers may help their pain, the letter reads.

Machado imagines his late son saying “buses are made to connect people and not to separate them.”

The GoFundMe that was set up for the family has raised more than $129.000 as of Tuesday evening, June 3.

Machado, who was not present at the scene of the accident, says in his message that the fundraiser is not about money but about love.

The grieving father says he wants to donate to other victims of tragic accidents in the future.

“I hope I never have to use one cent that has been donated,” he wrote.

He ends the letter with “What I need more than anything is your pray for my Mom because I love her so much!”