Canadian man drives with dead wife in car

[December 20, 2011]  TONASKET, Wash. (AP) -- Authorities say a British Columbia man drove about 225 miles after his 75-year-old wife died in the car next to him, uncertain whether he could cross the Canadian border with her.

Tonasket Police Chief Robert Burks says the 71-year-old man didn't know what to do, so he kept driving. The man was vacationing in Oregon when his wife began suffering a medical condition. They were trying to get home to Oliver, B.C., but she died near Pasco, Wash.

The Wenatchee World (http://bit.ly/vQlhta) reports the man on Sunday called the vehicle emergency system, OnStar, which put him in touch with dispatchers in Okanogan County. A dispatcher convinced him to stop at the Tonasket police station, about 20 miles south of Canada.

Burks says the woman was taken to North Valley Hospital and pronounced dead. He says police determined her death wasn't suspicious.

___

Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.