Teen couple, man mourned after crash
Halton Regional Police say ‘circumstances surrounding the collision are still being investigated’
A 26-year-old GTA man is being remembered as the dedicated breadwinner for his family after he was killed commuting to work when his car was struck from behind by a vehicle leaving a latenight car meet.
The two teen occupants of that car — passenger Emma Amminson, 16, and her boyfriend, driver Jaydon Burger, 18 — were also killed when their Infiniti G35 struck Mousawar Ahmed’s Honda CRV from behind as he was stopped at a red light around 3:30 a.m. Saturday at Sixth Line and Derry Road in Milton.
Ahmed was en route to Pearson airport, where he was an airport security officer.
Speaking to the Star, his friends in the GTA and across the continent described him as a “passionate” motivator who made sacrifices for his siblings and single mother, for whom he was the sole earner.
Amminson’s mother, Shannon Costa, meanwhile, described her daughter, a Grade 11 student at Cardinal Leger Secondary School in Brampton, as a “ray of sunshine” who had an infectious laugh, a compassionate heart and many ambitions.
What exactly caused the crash is not clear; Halton Regional Police said the “circumstances surrounding the collision are still being investigated by our Collision Reconstruction Unit.”
However, social media video of the fiery crash shows the aftermath of a collision that appeared to have happened at high speed.
According to Costa, Amminson and Burger, whom she started dating a few months ago, were both car enthusiasts and were on their way home from a meet-up where like-minded car owners come together to show off their rides. (Burger’s family did not respond to the Star’s requests for comment.)
In the days since the crash, tributes have flooded in for all three victims.
Arwa Amir, a close family friend, told the Star how Ahmed started working full-time right out of high school and chose to forgo a postsecondary degree to support his 19-year-old sister, eight-year-old brother and single mother.
Ahmed’s mom told him, “Go complete whatever (degree) you want,” Amir, 19, said — but he decided to work instead.
Ahmed loved anime, gaming, listening to music and sports. He was a big fan of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, rap artists J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, and was “continuously learning to appreciate new things in life,” said friend Sahil Rahul, 23.
Online, he bonded with a friend group spread throughout Ontario, the U.S. and the U.K.; with them, he’d made plans to travel to Japan, the home of anime.
“We wanted a chance to explore and appreciate (Japanese) culture,” Rahul said.
While going without Ahmed is nearly impossible to comprehend, his friends agreed he would still want them to go and check off the places on his long list to visit.
Online fundraisers have been organized for all three victims, with new tributes and donations coming in daily.
In his, friends described Burger as a kind and caring young man with a “bright spirit” and a zest for life.
Ahmed’s and Burger’s families have yet to announce funeral arrangements, while Amminson’s visitation is scheduled for Sunday, followed by a mass and interment on Monday.
In an interview with the Star, Costa described her daughter as a natural with kids, especially her five-year-old half-brother, who has autism.
Yet to settle on a career plan, Amminson was buzzing with ideas, Costa said — maybe she’d be a tattoo artist, work in cosmetics, or run a hair salon. When she was younger, she convinced herself she’d be a sensational singer, but “We unfortunately had to tell this poor kid that she was tone deaf,” Costa said with a laugh.
Recently, she started coming home from school raving about the new skills she had learned in her auto-mechanics class.
“I picked her up one day from school, and she’s like, ‘I learned how to take off my tire today, and I didn’t even break a nail,’” Costa recalled.
Father Edward Amminson remembered how excited she was to learn how to wash a car at school — “And all she wanted to do was clean my mom’s Jeep, my truck and my father’s truck.”
“There are friends now coming out of the woodwork that either we haven’t seen, or we didn’t even know she had,” Edward said of the support they’ve received.
“We’re blessed that everyone has just gathered to help her. To help us.”
The teen’s death leaves a large void in her parents’ lives.
“I could not wish this upon any human being in my life,” Costa said. “This is the worst feeling you could ever feel. It rips us apart every day.”