Drag racing may have killed another Hamilton-area man - the second such fatality within a week. Police wouldn't confirm the cause of the accident, but said street-racing could be responsible.
Witnesses say a cyclist was stopped in the street speaking to a motorist when a car slammed into him from behind at the intersection of Main Street and Park Row South. The man was catapulted into the air and flung down the road.
James Anderson was across the street at his brother's east-end store when he saw two cars speeding down Main Street at about 10 p.m.
"I heard a scream and a crash and I looked over," Anderson said. "It looked like a spoiler flew off one of those cars. Then I realized it was a bike flipping through the air."
When Anderson and his brother, Brian, rushed over to the wreckage the wheels of the red supercycle were still spinning. A black baseball cap lay half a block away at the point of collision and a man's contorted body lay twisted and bleeding heavily at the intersection. A blood-soaked shoe was on the other side of the intersection.
The Andersons called 911 and tried to see if they could help the man, but they said a nurse was already there.
Heather McNally went to the scene when her sister ran crying and screaming into the house. The sister saw the cyclist stopped, talking to some people in a parked car. Then she saw one of two racing cars hit the man.
McNally said that area of Main Street is notorious for drag racing.
The man had no vital signs when paramedics arrived.
Hamilton police Sergeant John Harris said several witnesses reported seeing drag racers. But he said it's too early to be sure. Two cars simply driving side-by-side could be mistaken for racers, he said.
Both cars left the scene after the collision. One, a purple Ford Mustang convertible, returned minutes later. The other was still at large last night although Harris said he had a good idea of who it was.
Police are interviewing a man. No charges have been laid.
Police have not released the name or age of the victim.
Early last Sunday morning, Sean Van Brocklin, 25, was killed in a Stoney Creek collision. Police said speed may have been a factor in the Winona man's death, and reported that witnesses saw Van Brocklin racing other cars earlier that evening in his 1989 BMW.
Drag racing was also blamed for seriously injuring two motorcyclists who smashed into a parked car in Oakville at the end of June.
These and other incidents have raised police concern about racing, and some believe movies have been glamorizing the dangerous pursuit. The car-racing movie The Fast and The Furious opened just weeks ago - the same weekend the motorcyclists crashed inOakville.
"Well, this car is automatic, it's systematic, it's hydromatic. Why it's greased lightning." -- Grease (1978)
The '57 Chevys have evolved into retooled '70s Mustangs and souped-up Honda Civics and the poodle skirts have been replaced by belly-baring mini shirts.
On any given hot summer night in Hamilton you can drive by Queenston Road parking lots and fast-food joints and believe you've put the world in reverse, going back 30 or 40 years.
Clusters of muscle cars and speed-enhanced imports are surrounded by owners and bystanders. They talk about pistons, carburetors and the number of seconds it takes a car to cover a quarter of a mile.
Every once in a while, a driver revs his thunderous engine and goes for a cruise.
Most of the car buffs are older and responsible, and say they have far too much money and years of loving care invested in their vehicles to speed on city streets. They say they wait for the race track.
But sometimes, when two cars pull up to a traffic light, the men exchange a testosterone-charged look. They tease each other with taps on the gas pedal, exciting the engines of their cars. They nod.
Buoyed by the rush of risk and the chance to showcase their car's ability, they burn rubber when the light turns green and race to the next light.
Two men were killed last week in collisions that have been linked to street races.
The first was 25-year-old Sean Van Brocklin, who died on July 8 when he crashed his 1989 BMW. Police said speed was a factor and muscle car fans saw the Winona truck driver racing down Queenston Road shortly before the ambulances screamed past in the same direction.
On Friday, 36-year-old Tim Ekelman was flung from his bicycle when two muscle cars left the intersection of Main and Ottawa streets with a roar and fatally rammed him from behind three blocks later, at Park Row.
Both cars fled the scene, but one, a purple '87 Mustang convertible, returned within minutes.
Louis Aguiar, 30, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death. His brother, Joe Aguiar, spoke to him for a moment at the scene and said his brother didn't know what happened. It was the second time Aguiar had his car on the streets this year. Joe said that if his brother wants to race the car he has babied for eight years, he takes it to the Cayuga Speedway.
"The car was just a weekend enjoyment. He didn't drive it during the week at all."
Aguiar drives transport trucks for a living. His brother can't believe he would risk his licence as well as the responsibilities of owning a house and being a husband (he married six months ago) to race down Main Street.
"Louis's car is kind of loud, even when it's just putting along. So people can get the wrong impression. It could be going slow but it's loud so people automatically assume it's going fast."
Joe was in court with other family members Saturday morning when his brother was remanded in custody for a bail hearing tomorrow.
Ekelman had mourning family members in court. Niece Sheri Gilmour expressed her anger toward street racers in a letter to The Spectator.
"Sure they may feel that it's fun and exciting, but is it worth it? Whoever it was took a life. My uncle's life."
Aguiar said the other car stopped at the traffic light was a black Camaro. Police are looking for anyone with information. Joe agrees with many area residents and muscle-car owners that Main Street is popular for drag racers.
In fact, as emergency crews cleaned up the Friday night crash debris at Park Row, the road was jammed with souped-up cars until about 5:30 a.m.
A few hours after the crash and a few blocks away, a modified Honda Civic toppled another cyclist. The second victim suffered minor leg injuries, and the driver fled the scene.
Friday night is usually the time to see vintage cars in Hamilton, when 50 to 100 car buffs gather at the now-closed Peggy Sue's restaurant at Nebo and Rymal roads. They flex their muscle cars and admire each other's work.
Then they usually go for a ride.
Hamilton's thunder alley starts near Kenilworth and reaches along Main Street to Centennial Parkway and back along King Street.
About every 10th car on an average Friday night along that circuit is a machine designed to make other men stop and drool -- and to outrun anything else in its class.
Staff Sergeant Bill Campbell says most of the Peggy Sue crowd are enthusiasts who are not interested in deadly street racing. "Those are mostly the collectors ... It's the younger people from about 19 to 25 (years) that are really humming along."
He and Constable Mark Nicholls were cruising the strip Saturday night with a radar gun.
They parked the cruiser where they could see a row of headlights at the intersection. When the traffic lights changed to green, the cars occasionally vroomed and squealed into action, slowing when the cruiser was in view.
Most muscle cars chugged along in groups or side by side as if on parade. For show, not speed.
However, there is the "small faction of idiots" who put everyone's lives in danger when they get on the road, as Ron Mullally, 47, can attest.
Mullally was part of the contingent watching traffic from the Queenston Mall parking lot. He has been interested in racing for 29 years and now owns a '75 El Dorado convertible, a '78 Camaro Z28 and an '81 Malibu Classic, among others.
Although he says he quells his speed lust at the racetrack, he remembers being younger and less cautious.
"You get the idea that 'nothing bad can happen to me because I know what I'm doing', and some guys have to prove what they've done to their cars." Some younger drivers soup up their cars to the point where they can't handle the extra power, Mullally added.
John Scime, 38, was also at the Queenston Mall in the early hours of yesterday morning with his '74 Dodge Charger. It's the first car he ever owned and he paid $2,500 for the classic in 1979. He's since put close to $40,000 into body work, huge traction-friendly tires, a hood scoop that lets cool air into the carburetor (and the corresponding undercarriage work), and a retooled engine that bumped the horsepower from 375 to almost 600 and helped him cover a quarter mile in just over 11 seconds at 123 mph.
Earlier that night, another muscle car driver asked Scime to race. He declined, forcefully.
"You get the odd guy who wants to stir up the pot."
It's the things you can't control, even as an experienced driver, that keep long-time drivers like Scime and Mullally from street racing. The man walking across the street at night. The tunnel vision that keeps you focused on your control panel or the car you are racing and not on whatever (or whoever) else might be on the road.
The Beach Strip on Sunday nights is a dangerous place to be, according to the Queenston Road group. Up to five hundred young people crowd into the parking lots near Baranga's On The Beach and watch the souped-up cars.
They pour water and bleach on the ground and spin out their cars to generate the most smoke. The speed bumps in the lot have been almost worn flat. So far, none of the vehicles have plowed into the crowd.
Hamilton city councillors have become concerned. Ekelman died right in front of Sam Merulla's constituency office and just blocks from Bernie Morelli's home.
Merulla wants to install parking meters along Main and King Streets so one lane is blocked and the cars can't race side-by-side, and is pro-photo radar with Morelli. Morelli, as Police Services Board chair, said speeding in general is a problem in the city.
"It's not new. You see two cars pull up to the light, they look at each other, they are usually under 35 and in muscle cars ... it's 'let's see if my car is faster than yours.' Then they race."
Police have seized a burnt-out pickup truck found in a west Mountain park a few hours after Brian Furneaux was struck down by a hit-and-run driver. They will now send paint samples from the truck to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto to see if they match samples of auto paint taken from the 18-year-old victim's clothing and mangled bicycle.
Detective Constable John Johnston, a Hamilton police accident reconstruction specialist, said last night the charred Mazda B20 midsize pickup fits the description witnesses gave police after the collision, including the fact it has a red fender.
If the samples match, police will have questions for the owner. If they do not match, police will continue to search for a grey or black midsize pickup with damage to the front end, a broken windshield, and what witnesses say were red fenders.
Furneaux, of Main Street East, was riding his bicycle down Main at 1 a.m. Saturday to get coffee for himself and his girlfriend, Violet Atkinson, also 18, when he was hit at Ashford Boulevard.
The father-to-be of Atkinson's child died at Hamilton General Hospital early Monday and was buried in Woodland Cemetery yesterday.
Johnston said the truck was found abandoned and blazing in Olympic Park early Saturday. Police sought warrants for the truck and seized it.
Now it sits in the garage at central police station waiting for investigators to get it up on a hoist and check for damage consistent with having run over a bicycle.
The truck has damage to the front end but has no tell-tale damaged windshield.
"The windshield was removed before it was set on fire," Johnston said.
Although the truck's dash-mounted vehicle identification number had been removed, police used a secret VIN strip elsewhere on the truck to locate the owner.
It is owned by a "young man who lives on the west Mountain who reported it as having been stolen sometime between 1 and 6 a.m. Saturday. We are not in anyway saying the owner is involved."
If the paint on the truck matches paint from the scene of the collision, "we will be looking for answers from the owner," Johnston said.
When the paint samples from the truck get to the forensic sciences lab, an infrared spectrometer and other tests will be used to see if they match bits of grey automotive paint from Furneaux's clothes and smashed black Supercycle 1200 mountain bike.
The spectrometer sends a laser beam through a sample of paint which has been flattened to the point of transparency, producing a spectrum which measures how much light is absorbed by the paint at different frequencies.
The peaks and valleys on the spectrum tell analysts the makeup of the paint layers in the sample.
The components of these layers are fed into a computer as text and compared to a library of other paint spectra -- supplied by manufacturers -- or other known samples such as paint bits from a crime scene.
Police already know quite a bit about the collision. From the crushed back wheel of the bike and the bent front rim, they know Furneaux was hit squarely from behind and virtually lifted off his bike before it was run over.
From his injuries and witnesses' reports of damage on the vehicle, they believe the force carried him over the engine top, into the windshield and up and over the vehicle itself. It does not appear he was "punted" forward by the impact but was hurled up and back and then off the vehicle as it passed the impact point.
A mathematical "vault" formula using Furneaux's weight and the distance between the point of impact and where he came to rest on the road -- about 33 metres east of the point of impact -- should tell investigators how fast the truck was moving.
The cyclist, who appeared to be wearing a hat but not a helmet, suffered serious head injuries.
Furneaux's bike had the required white reflector on the front and the appropriate red reflector on the back.
Furneaux's family has set up a trust fund at the Bank of Nova Scotia on James Street North for Brian's unborn child and Atkinson's 18-month-old daughter Decota.
Donations may be made at any branch of the bank for the Brian Furneaux trust fund, account number 603920182729.
The death of a Hamilton teen killed while trying to cross Highway 407 at night has prompted a police probe into the safety of the fencing surrounding the newly opened toll road. Pamela Gray, 15, was taken off life support at McMaster University Medical Centre early Sunday afternoon.
She was the last of three friends to try to dash across the highway near Dundas Street shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday. Her two companions, including best friend and schoolmate Sheena Klassen, reached the other side safely.
An eastbound car struck the teen.
She would have started Grade 10 at Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School next week.
OPP Constable Kim Cheeseman said yesterday police were shifting the focus of their investigation to the safety of the chain link fence that serves as a barrier between the highway and the bustling suburbs on either side.
She said police would be looking specifically at concerns relating to the height of the fence.
"There are some areas on the north side (of the highway) where (the fence) goes quite low ... at some points it is almost level to the ground," she said.
She was unable to pinpoint where Gray and her friends crossed.
It is illegal to walk or cycle on any provincial freeway or highway.
Cheeseman said the problem with the fencing appears to be directly connected to the natural terrain of the land. If the land dips down into a gully, for example, so too does the fence, making it much easier for people to climb over. And according to area residents, that's exactly what's happening.
Elizabeth Muir, whose Driftwood Drive townhouse backs onto the highway, said the fence outside her home is only about waist high. "Kids have no trouble hopping the fence there," she said. "They think nothing of crossing over (the highway)."
Muir is worried that more accidents will occur when school starts in September. She said the easiest way to get to Notre Dame Secondary School, located on the highway's south side, is to cross the 407.
It wasn't much of an issue while the highway was under construction, but Muir fears some teenagers might continue using the dangerous short cut despite 100-kilometre-an-hour traffic.
Const. Cheeseman said at least one resident living on the north side of the highway notified 407 officials of the potential risk prior to Saturday's tragedy.
Dale Albers, spokesman for 407 ETR which runs the toll road for a private consortium, said officials are deeply saddened by Gray's death. However, he stood behind the road's safety record. "The highway is very safe," he said.
Albers said warnings against pedestrian use of the highway appear at each on-ramp and No Trespassing signs hang all along the chain link fences.
Gray's death was the second fatality on the 407 since it opened in 1997. An elderly man suffering from Alzheimer's disease was killed about six months ago after he wandered onto the highway and into the path of a motorcycle in Markham.
The mother of one of the teens who crossed the highway with Gray on Saturday doesn't understand why the group was near the 407.
"It came as a complete surprise that they were even down there," said Catrena Klassen.
Alcohol is not a factor in the accident.
She too expressed concern over the safety of the highway, which cuts through a well-established and heavily populated residential area. "It is not well lit and the fences are not high enough," she said.
Only the central portion of Highway 407 -- which does not include the fatality scene -- has high-mast or artificial lighting. Albers said the company will monitor safety along the highway and make changes if necessary.
The Gray family did not wish to talk with media yesterday.
Ginette Laplante, a close family friend speaking on behalf of the family, described Pamela as a "very sweet, bright, and ambitious" girl.
She said Klassen and Gray were the best of friends and spent almost all their time together.
A veteran cyclist, who had competed with the Polish junior national team, was preparing for the Ontario championships when he was killed Tuesday by a hit-and-run driver. Jacek Wierzbicki, 41, of Etobicoke, was struck from behind during a training run. He was riding his $5,000 Italian racing bike south on Tremaine Road between Main Street and Derry Road, a few kilometers from downtown Milton.
A motorist found him unconscious on the road moments after seeing a badly damage compact car speeding from the scene.
The bicycle was hurled into the ditch and a mailbox knocked off its post during the collision which occurred at about 11:50 a.m.
Wierzbicki was pronounced dead at the scene, less than an hour after leaving his house in Etobicoke where he lived with his wife, Anna, and three young children.
Halton Sergeant Val Hay said police are requesting public assistance in locating the vehicle, described as a light grey or white compact model with damage to the windshield and headlight on the driver's side.
A former member of the Polish junior national racing team, Wierzbicki immigrated to Canada in 1987 and was working as a massage therapist.
He took up cycling again about three years ago and planned to compete in the Ontario championships in St. Catharines on Sunday.
He was a member of the Etobicoke-based Pinarello racing team, which includes former Canadian national team member Don Zuck.
His death, which happened on a straight stretch of road with good visibility, has baffled his teammates and brought back memories of another accident in 1983 involving Canadian cycling legend Jocelyn Lovell.
He was left a quadriplegic after a collision with a dump truck outside Milton.
Zuck described Wierzbicki as a cautious cyclist, who knew the Milton area well and didn't take foolish risks. He was wearing a helmet, clipless pedals, and the most modern cycling gear.
"He knows what he is doing out there," said the 44-year-old cyclist, who competed on the national cycling team with Lovell in the 1970s.
"We're baffled. He never took risks. That road is highly safe. There were nearly perfect conditions in broad daylight," he added.
He said the area is popular among competitive cyclists who use the hilly terrain around the Niagara escarpment to build strength and endurance.
As an experienced road racer, however, Zuck realizes cyclists are vulnerable when they train on open roads.
Like Wierzbicki, Lovell was on a training run when he was hit by the dump truck on Britannia Road, a few kilometers from the scene of Tuesday's accident.
The dump truck driver wasn't charged because police concluded Lovell contributed to the collision by riding beside the vehicle in the driver's blind spot.
Zuck said Pinarello team members will hold some kind of memorial service for their comrade, who often doubled as the team masseur.
"Some of the guys are here now (at the Pavan Cycle shop where the Pinarello team is based).
"It's pretty tough to take. He was married with three kids. He was gentleman and a family man," Zuck said.
Police say a 28-year-old Szabolcz Laszlo Horvath was riding his bicycle southbound through the intersection at Shaver Road and Wilson Street West in Ancaster was struck by a car just before 5 p.m. September 1.
According to police, the male driver of the car fled. He is described as a large male, with a dark complexion and a stocky build. Police also believe there were two or three other occupants in the car. Witnesses say the car is an older, dark grey 4-door Chevrolet model. The doors are a lighter grey than the body of the vehicle. The passenger side of the car sustained visible damage where the bike struck, along with a broken front headlight and antenna.
Police say the vehicle has been closely identified from parts left at the scene and could be any of the following cars:
Buick- 1984-1985, 1990-1991; Skylark, 1985 Regal
Chevrolet- 1985-1989; Impala, 1984-1985 Citation
Oldsmobile- 1983-1984 Regency, 1985-1987 Calais, 1983-1985 Delta 88, 1983-1984 Omega
Pontiac- 1985-1985 Bonneville/Grand Prix, 1985 Gran Am, 1987 Grand Prix, 1985-1986 Paris.
The Ancaster man suffered severe head injuries in the accident and died later that night at the Hamilton General Hospital.
Police say the 28-year-old was working in Hamilton on a temporary visa and was set to return to Hungary next month.
Anyone with further information is urged to contact the Collision Reconstruction Team at 905-546-4753.
Drinking and driving charges in Hamilton last year jumped 34 per cent over the previous year. Police laid 734 alcohol-related charges last year, compared to 548 in 2000 and 497 in 1999. The increase from 1999 to last year is an astounding 48 per cent leap.
"The problem's out there and it's an uphill battle," conceded Hamilton police RIDE co-ordinator Constable John Rusnak.
He wasn't sure what was behind the increase, but said it could be because police were more aggressive in going after drunk drivers in 2001.
"I'm happy they're catching more people doing it, but I'm not happy with the number of charges," he said.
National statistics show the number of people charged with impaired driving decreased 3.6 per cent in 1998, which was the 15th consecutive year that there's been a drop. A Statistics Canada report (and the most recent) said part of the reason charges were declining may be police issuing more temporary licence suspensions.
In Ontario, 20,123 people were charged with impaired driving in 1998, a decrease of 2.6 per cent from the year before. Across the country in 1998, 103 people were charged with impaired driving causing death, the lowest level in a decade. And 886 people were charged with impaired driving causing bodily harm, a 27.6 per cent drop since 1989.
Louise Knox, national president of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) Canada called Hamilton's results "sad."
"Obviously we've still got a lot of work to do. People aren't getting it," she said.
But there was some optimism in the fight against drunk driving over the holiday season. Out of 27,270 vehicles stopped by police in RIDE lanes from Nov. 30 to Jan. 1, police laid just one charge for having a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit of .08 per cent. Police conducted 64 roadside breath tests, and of those, 40 people passed and 23 received 12-hour driving suspensions for having a blood alcohol concentration over .05.
In 2000, police stopped fewer cars -- 23,646 -- and laid two charges and issued 21 licence suspensions.
"It's down a bit, but I wouldn't claim a total victory on drinking and driving," Rusnak said. "It reflects on the general attitudes of people that they know we're doing RIDE lanes."
While some municipalities reported a drop in the number of drivers charged during this holiday season's RIDE checks, others showed increases. Toronto police laid more charges than last year, 103 compared to 89 the year before. And the number of licence suspensions also increased in Toronto, to 312 from 278 in 2000. Toronto police said more officers were on the road, resulting in more charges.
Waterloo Regional Police laid nine charges and issued eight 12-hour suspensions, up slightly from previous years.
Emile Thérien, president of the Canada Safety Council, called Hamilton's RIDE results during the holidays "marvellous."
"Hamilton police must be commended, because somebody's doing a good job somewhere."
He referred to recent studies which claim that chronic, hard-core drinkers are responsible for the majority of drinking and driving crashes. Thérien said Hamilton's results show RIDE programs are good at targeting these offenders, because it discourages them from driving out of fear of the legal consequences. "Enforcement is a major deterrent to these people," he said.
He said the increase in the total number of alcohol-related charges last year could be attributed to a statistical blip, or the fact that police were more diligent. "I tend to think there's fewer (drunk drivers)," he said, adding Hamilton's results are not cause for alarm.
But Knox said the total number of charges for the year is a more accurate reflection of the problem than the RIDE results over the holidays. "People are more aware that there are going to be check stops (during the holidays) so they're less prone to do it," she said.
The new year, however, isn't starting out well in the city. On Wednesday night, police nabbed three drunk drivers.
In one incident, a driver nearly ran into a police officer who was standing next to his cruiser at Birge Street and East Avenue around 9:30 p.m. The officer jumped into his cruiser and followed the driver, who drove through a stop sign and reached 100 km/h. He eventually pulled over and turned the car off, but tried to start it up and take off again when he saw police approaching. Police had to pull him out of the car to prevent him from driving away. A 32 year-old Hamilton man was charged with impaired driving, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and refusing to give a breath sample.
A 65-year-old man and a 41-year-old man were also charged with impaired driving in separate incidents.
Around the region, RIDE campaigns over the holiday season produced mixed results:
-- With files from Lori Fazari, The Hamilton Spectator
More than 40 pedestrians have died in traffic accidents in Hamilton in the past six years. Last year alone, 470 people were hit by cars. Of the eight who died, three were to blame for the accident.
Police are now gearing up to catch law-breaking pedestrians and aggressive drivers in May as part of the annual road safety blitz.
"People walk out whenever they feel like it," said Hamilton Constable John Rusnak. "It only takes about 40 seconds for the light to change. It's certainly worth life and limb to wait."
About six Hamilton pedestrians die in traffic accidents every year -- a total of 43 since 1995. The May jaywalking blitz will focus on three of Hamilton's worst intersections: King Street East and Wellington Street, Barton Street East and Kenora Avenue, and Ogilvie Street and Governor's Road.
Anyone caught disobeying the signals or failing to use the crosswalk could face a fine of up to $40.
Under the Highway Traffic Act, a person can be charged with failing to use the designated crosswalk if they are within 100 metres of the crosswalk.
"We're just saying: 'Listen --cross the proper way,'" Rusnak said. "We want to reduce the number of people struck on our streets."
Although jaywalking and disobeying traffic signals is a habit that spans all age groups, senior citizens and children are at particular risk of being hurt.
Because children are short, they have trouble seeing cars and drivers have trouble seeing them. Kids are also poor judges of the speed at which an oncoming car is being driven.
Seniors are often less mobile than younger adults and may take longer to cross.
About a quarter of the pedestrians struck and killed each year in Canada are senior citizens.
"Many of the worst intersections are around seniors' residences," Rusnak said. "Drivers need to be patient."
A Canadian Automobile Association spokeswoman says the risk to older pedestrians increases in winter.
"Snowbanks pose a particular problem to seniors," says CAA's Pauline Mitchell.
White hair and a light coloured jacket are enough to make it "difficult to distinguish between a snowbank and a senior standing beside a snowbank."
Hamilton police are trying to spread the message to seniors with a seminar called Step Out Safely. It teaches pedestrian safety tips to senior citizens. The annual traffic safety blitz begins in April with seatbelts and speeding and continues to November.
--With files from John Burman, The Hamilton Spectator
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