(Based
on an article in the Toronto Star, July 2008)
The car burst through the metal
guardrail, as if the guardrail had been made of cardboard, and struck a tree
before smashing down the embankment and rolling to a stop, on its side, in the
river. It was almost 6:30 pm when the
residents in the area heard a “big bang” on the Joseph River bridge. A man whose cottage was near the crash site
ran outside in a panic to see what had happened. What he saw there was a young woman standing,
soaking wet, on the shoulder of the road, on the opposite side of a peeled-back
and twisted guardrail, near the bridge, appearing to be in total shock. A pine tree behind her had been split in half
and, below the bridge, was an Audi in the Joseph River with three male victims
still inside.
The man called 911 right away,
while some boaters who were in the immediate vicinity rushed over to see if
they could be of assistance. Shortly
after the call to emergency, rescue workers arrived and extricated the three
victims from the semi-submerged car. The
three young men in the car were then rushed to the hospital by ambulance, along
with the young woman who had also been in the car with them. The car was later removed from the water
around 3 am, and the road was closed for about 6 hours during this time.
Tragically, the three young men,
one aged 19 and two aged 20, were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. The young woman, Natalie Bonheur, aged 18,
was the only one to survive, miraculously with few physical injuries except for
some scratches and bruises, no doubt because she had been the only one wearing
a seatbelt at the time of the crash. The
police surmised that the driver had lost control of the car, which had careened
down the river’s embankment, but were unsure what had led to the crash.
Just after midnight, a blue
Buick, finding the road closed and trying to turn around, also hit a metal
guardrail and caught the attention of Muskoka Lakes firefighters and
police. Bracebridge OPP officers caught
up with the car, which was careening dangerously out of control, and arrested
the driver on impaired driving charges.
Whether this kind of behaviour had been the cause of the original
accident to the Audi was still to be determined. When police later examined the scene of the
accident, long, black skid marks could be seen along the two-lane road, along
with car debris strewn about on the road and along the sides. One of the police constables later reported
to the news media that he had never, in his 34 years in the OPP, seen such
damage before done by a single-car crash.
A small pile of daisies was later put on the crash site with a note that
said “Rest in Peace, Tim. I’ll always
miss you, buddy.” The note was signed by
Adam Peters, one of Timothy’s Moliere’s many good friends.
In some ways, it had been the
perfect summer day to spend at the cottage.
The sun was shining, the water was clear and the there wasn’t much for a
group of young friends to do except to hang out together and enjoy each other’s
company. The group consisted of Calvin (Cal)
Morelle, and his two buddies, Timothy (Tim) Moliere and Kyle Thomas. They had been spending the weekend at Cal’s
family cottage on Muskoka’s Lake Rousseau, close to the crash site, just hours
before the awful tragedy that would cost these three young men their lives.
Another male friend, George Cole,
who had visited them briefly that afternoon, had had to leave earlier because
of his job at a nearby summer camp. Cal
had invited him to stay for lunch with them at a restaurant in a club that was
located on the shore of nearby Lake Joseph, but George declined and left
shortly afterward. Natalie Bonheur, a
friend of Cal’s family, had agreed at the last minute to join them all at the
restaurant.
On later reflection, it wasn’t
clear what the group had eaten and drunk at the club’s restaurant for
lunch. It was thought that they had had
something to drink of an alcoholic nature, but how much was anyone’s guess. No one who worked at the club recalled seeing
the group leave, so the time they had departed was also unclear. It was thought by police that both alcohol
and vehicular speed had been factors in the crash.
These three young men had had
such promise in their young lives. Two
of them, Cal and Kyle, had met at Crestwood, a private prep school in
Toronto. They had both played hockey in
high school and had become fast friends through their mutual love of
hockey. Kyle’s family and friends
consoled each other, trying to cope with this horrible tragedy. Kyle was the son of an engineer and homemaker
and was the “pride and joy” of his family.
He was much loved by his parents, who felt he had both the aptitude and
the motivation to attend law school, eventually, in Toronto.
Cal was the guy that everyone
seemed to know. He was always the life
of the party and young people naturally gravitated toward him. Condolences from his many friends were posted
on his Face Book page and in the memorial book at Benjamin’s Park Memorial
Chapel, which arranges Jewish funeral services.
Cal had attended the University of Western Ontario in Fine Arts,
aspiring to be a musician, but had returned recently to Toronto to pursue a
film-making career.
Tim’s friend, Adam, talked of
Tim’s great athleticism and his love for the game of golf. He had, in fact, aspired to be a professional
golfer on the PGA tour. In essence, Tim
would be missed very much by his family consisting of his two loving parents
and two younger sisters. He had moved to
Toronto from Caledon, joined Upper Canada College (UCC) in grade 9, graduated
from UCC in 2006, and had been attending the University of San Francisco (USF)
when the accident occurred. While at
USF, there wasn’t any subject that Tim would not tackle. He was an excellent student and did very well
at everything he studied. Later, Tim had
returned to Toronto to start working for his father’s company, a health and
wellness clinic in the Forest Hills area.
He was very close to his dad; in fact, he was “everything” to his dad.
The true cause of this tragic car
crash may never be known to anyone. Even
Natalie, who survived the crash only because she had worn her seatbelt,
remembers very little of how it actually happened. She would later say “Sometimes people who are
involved in tragic events block out extremely painful memories. It’s their way of surviving and carrying on
with their lives. I lost three of my
best friends that awful day. How can
anyone expect that I should be able to talk about this tragedy as if it were
just a minor fender-bender type of car accident? I know that I will never really remember
anything except how wonderful those three guys really were and how important
they were to me before they died.”
published by Authorhouse, copyright 2011, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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