A 24-year-old man, his 22-year-old girlfriend and her 16-year-old sister were among the victims in a deadly crash in Brampton on Monday night, family and friends confirm to CTV News Toronto.
The two-car crash happened at around 8:45 p.m. at Bovaird Drive and Gillingham Drive, west of Main Street.
According to police, a 1998 Trans Am being driven by a 49-year-old Brampton man crossed a median and collided with a Kia Soul being driven by the 24-year-old Georgetown man. Two women from Brampton were also travelling as passengers in the Kia Soul.
All four parties were pronounced dead at the scene.
Family and friends have since identified the occupants of the Soul as Brian McGinnis, 24, his girlfriend of three years Lauren Bouchard, 22, and her sister Michelle Bouchard, 16.
In a release issued late Tuesday afternoon, Peel police identified the fourth victim as 49-year-old Brampton resident Calisto Mendonca.
At the time of the crash, family and friends say that McGinnis was driving his girlfriend and her sister back from a Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Georgetown.
Family and friends also say that the couple had done some apple picking earlier in the day.
“Around midnight me and my boyfriend heard a loud knock on the door and there was two cops. They asked for his mother, she came down and our whole world came crumbling down,” Becca Harvie-Doyle, the girlfriend of McGinnis’s brother, told CTV News Toronto on Tuesday afternoon. “We didn’t even get to say goodbye because we didn’t know they left.”
Harvie-Doyle told CTV News Toronto that McGinnis and Bouchard “were just the sweetest people.”
At a Brampton Tim Hortons where McGinnis often hung out with friends many people echoed that assessment.
“Brian was probably one of the most genuine people I have ever met,” one friend said. “If you need help with anything or were short of something he would give you the shirt off his back. He always thought of everybody else before himself.”
“He was real and so original,” another friend added. “He was just such a nice guy. A real kind soul.”
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
“At this point we’re trying to determine why he crossed over the median to strike the other vehicle. That is part of the investigation,” Const. Mark Fischer told CP24 earlier on Tuesday.
Fischer said any number of factors, including speed, may have been a factor in the crash. The posted speed limit in the area is 70 kilometres per hour.
“Some of the determining factors could be speed involved. We don’t know at this point if that is the cause,” Fischer said. “It could be speed, it could be distracted driving, it could be a vehicle malfunction such as a tire blowout or a medical condition that would force him to lose control of his vehicle.”
Fischer said police are keeping “all possibilities” open until they have gathered and reviewed all the evidence.
Video taken by witnesses at the scene shows bystanders trying to reach the victims, but unable to access them because of the intense flames.
Early Tuesday, the vehicles were removed from the scene, but pieces of the vehicles melted onto the roadway were still visible.
The Peel Police Major Collision Bureau is handling the investigation.
The road reopened at around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
