Wife of motorcyclist killed in Highway 9 crash speaks out against impaired driving
Winston Supena, 30, died after collision with truck; police say driver's licence suspended, alcohol was factor
Mica Orcullo-Supena set up about a dozen chairs in the living room of her North Kildonan home on Friday afternoon, arranging them in rows to face a makeshift altar with framed pictures of her husband and some of his favourite foods.
The 28-year-old has held a prayer vigil at her home each night since last Saturday when her husband, 30-year-old Winston Supena, was killed in a crash as he rode his motorcycle just north of Winnipeg.
The nine days of prayers are part of a Filipino cultural practice intended to help a person's soul immediately after their death, she said.
The crash happened on Highway 9 and Mitchell Bay, in the rural municipality of St. Andrews, around 4 p.m. last Saturday, RCMP previously said. Supena's motorcycle collided with a three-ton truck as the truck was trying to turn westward down Mitchell Bay, police said.
Mica says police told her that the 67-year-old man who drove the truck admitted to officers that he'd reversed the truck in front of Supena's motorcycle as he made the turn down Mitchell Bay, before Supena crashed into his vehicle.
Supena was pronounced dead at the crash site, RCMP said.
Hours before the fatal crash, Mica says she'd had brunch with her husband and their four-year-old daughter in Winnipeg, after he finished an early shift at his job as a health-care aide with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Supena left the restaurant early to meet up with his motorcycle buddies while his daughter finished eating, she says.
"And that was the last time we saw him."
'My life shattered'
Police said on Monday the truck driver's licence was suspended under The Highway Traffic Act. They believe alcohol was a factor in this collision, but no charges have been laid.
RCMP say their investigation into the crash is ongoing.
"We're devastated. We lost the one we love, for what? A bottle of alcohol?" Mica said. "That decision changed not only his [life], but all of our lives."
Mica, who works as a massage therapist, said she was in a session with a family member when someone messaged her to call one of her husband's motorcycle buddies, who told her that Supena had been in an accident and was receiving CPR from paramedics.
"I think, at that time, my life shattered," she said.
She called Supena's friend again shortly after, as she got stuck in traffic while rushing to the crash site from south Winnipeg, and had the friend ask paramedics whether a helicopter was coming to take her husband to the hospital.
"A couple seconds later, you hear something in his voice, and his friend says … 'they're putting a white cloth on Winston,'" she said.
"I'm not stupid. I know what a white cloth means."
She never made it to the crash site, and went to her parents' home instead.
"I just broke down. I think I cried the rest of the day," she said. "I still cry every day, because he's no longer coming home. My kids no longer have their dad."
'Using Winston's story as the lesson'
The couple married less than two years ago, after spending a decade together, Mica said.
She remembers him as an avid motorcycle enthusiast who would "help anybody in a heartbeat."
"That's why he's a health-care aide. It's his passion to help people," she said.
Their two young children — a seven-year-old son and four-year-old daughter — understand that their father was in an accident with his motorcycle, but they're too young to understand that he's not coming home again.
Mica wants her husband's death to serve as a reminder to drivers that they should keep an eye out for two-wheeled vehicles on the road.
She says a vigil will be held at the crash site on Saturday, a day which comes during Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. She hopes both events will help people remember Supena's legacy, which she says was filled with kindness, warmth, and a love for motorcycles.
"We're using Winston's story as the lesson, but he would have wanted to be able to make a difference, and this is how I'm going to help my husband do that, for his memory to live on," she said.
"If people were more aware, maybe it wouldn't have happened to Winston."
With files from Felisha Adam