Grieving family, friends in disbelief as fiery crash claims two lives
‘Pillar in the car community’ dies with companion near Leamington
LEAMINGTON Joe Young slowly rolled up in his black pickup truck early Sunday afternoon and just stopped and stared at the three large concrete stones around the base of a 50-foot cylinder of liquefied carbon dioxide.
Young and his friend, Kam Schmitt, scanned the quiet rural scene for clues that would help them make sense of the tragic death early Sunday morning of their friend and his companion in a single-vehicle accident.
“I just don’t believe it,” Young said. “I had to come here to see that it is real.
“I still don’t believe it. I have no idea what happened.”
Though the OPP weren’t releasing the names of the deceased, word spread quickly through the Leamington community.
Young posted a heartfelt tribute to Brandon Froese on his Facebook page: “Today we say goodbye to a great man ..." Young also posted a fundraising event to help the families of Froese and Miranda Brown pay funeral expenses.
The accident occurred a quiet stretch of Leamington’s Mersea Road 5 around midnight.
The car was travelling west when it left the road and travelled across about 75 metres of grass. It struck the stones at the base of the tower rupturing the tank and triggering an explosion and fire.
The tank stood on the property of a greenhouse operation in the 1100 block of Mersea Road 5. The OPP and the Windsor and Essex County EMS attended the scene where the occupants of the car were pronounced dead.
The road was closed for six hours following the crash while the OPP’s Technical Collision Investigators completed their investigation.
“He was my best friend,” Young said. “We met at school in Grade 7 when I switched schools.
"I didn’t know anyone there and he was the first person I met and we’ve been like family ever since.
“I was with his family this morning after I got the call at 7 a.m. They’re still in disbelief.”
“He was so loved, there were already all kinds of cars at his parents’ house when I got there.”
Young said the deceased both lived in the Leamington area.
A steady stream of vehicles soon joined Young’s truck on the shoulder of Mersea Road 5, many getting out to wander over to place flowers on the charred stones and exchange hugs.
Young said his friend was coming back from St. Thomas Raceway Park in Sparta where he’d been racing his beloved Neon SRT-4 Saturday night.
“He and his girlfriend were just out enjoying themselves and coming back from the track,” said Young, who added his friend worked as a technician at a Leamington oil change shop. “He’d had a real good night there on the track.
“He was a pillar in the car community here. He loved cars, that’s what he talked about.”
Schmitt added the tightknit car enthusiast’s community were supposed to gather at the Leamington dock for a memorial cruise in their friend’s honour later Sunday.
“There are going to be a lot of broken up people there man,” Schmitt said. “He was huge in the car community. Anyone who ever met him, liked him.
“He’d do anything for anyone who needed help.”
Schmitt and Young said their friend was in a great place in his life after having met his girlfriend in recent months.
“They were so happy,” Schmitt said. “He loved kids and his girlfriend had a young girl that’ll grow up without her mother now.
“This is awful,” he added. “There are a lot of grown men who are in tears today.”