An Ottawa man tells Quinte News that Sunday could have been his last Father’s Day.
Sean O’Meara, his father, and brother left the Kanata area early Sunday morning and went to Oshawa for a classic car show.
They took Highway 7 and on the way home they stopped to gas up in Marmora.
His dad took the wheel and they got back on their way home.
“We’re exiting Marmora, coming down the hill with a single lane eastbound, and we’re still adjacent to the two westbound passing lanes entering Marmora, which would then be going uphill westbound, downhill eastbound.
As the lanes are bottle-necking to return to just one lane both directions, my father makes a very calm, subtle comment to the effect of, “What the hell, buddy?” and I look up and there is the pickup truck, and he is straddling the double yellow line attempting to pass another vehicle, but neither vehicle is yielding.
So my father, in the old car, slows and takes the shoulder with only about a second or two to spare as the other two vehicles pass us, so we’re three wide. The red truck and the other vehicle are passing westbound less than a foot from the skin of our vehicle, and we hear them making contact NASCAR style.
As the vehicle is going by me, I track the vehicle, watching it because I’m not driving, and the pickup truck who was straddling the yellow line caused the other vehicle to lose control. That vehicle went perpendicular to the roadway and then was struck by the five-ton truck travelling behind us, and then the pinball effect and the chaos ensued with the secondary vehicles behind the five-ton truck.”
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(Photo: Sean O’Meara)
He says they missed getting hit head-on by a foot or two.
O’Meara is a former first responder, as is his father, while his brother was a Canadian Armed Forces member, so they stopped their vehicle to assist at the scene.
He does not know how, however, O’Meara says there were no catastrophic injuries.
“Life is too short, life is too fragile, it’s just not worth the rush, the complacency, or any other emotion that leads up to you making a silly choice to try and pass on a double yellow line. We were 10 inches from not getting another Father’s Day. It’s a major reality check.”
One person was placed in custody according to O’Meara.
We are awaiting details on the crash from Central Hastings OPP.
The roadway was closed for several hours while crews cleaned and investigated
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(Photo: Sean O’Meara)
(Photo: Sean O’Meara)
(Photo: Sean O’Meara)
