A Tragedy

"It's a tragedy. We have a young fellow who was trying to help out another person ... and we've lost a life needlessly on the highway."
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Brian Humber

"We're proud of what he did, trying to help someone else when most people wouldn't have stopped. It didn't surprise us he stopped. That was Jonathan, he was very selfless." 
"He saw the man in distress and Jonathan, being the gentleman that he is, he pulled over to help."
Christine Turmaine, step-mother

"It didn't matter it was 3:30 in the morning. He wouldn't leave someone stranded. He was always willing to help people."
"He liked working with his hands and working outside. He's a big, strong kid and that's what he liked to do. He always made sure he was never late for work."
Pierre Paquette

Jonathan's parents speak in the present. It is Jonathan 'is', not Jonathan 'was'. It will take them quite a while to wrench their minds toward the horrendously painful reality that Jonathan no longer is there, in the flesh. He is there certainly, but in their memories. And they will evoke the memories of the young man forever in their minds, recalling his spirit and his character. It is, after all, what they have left of him.

It was far earlier in the morning than most people would find themselves out, driving on a snow-slick highway Monday morning, February 24, on Highway 400, at half-past three, well before daylight, between Barrie, Ontario and Victoria Harbour. A van plowed off the highway, flipped and landed on its roof. Inside, the driver was trapped, aware that a handful of other vehicles were passing by.

Unable to help himself, awaiting help, but no help arrived. At least for the first half-hour.
 

Jonathan Antler-Paquette, right, is pictured with his father Pierre Paquette. Jonathan was killed early in the morning on Feb. 24 when he was struck while stopping to help a driver who’d slid off the road on Highway 400 near Barrie. (Photo supplied by Pierre Paquette)

 

What might have been the sixth vehicle to come across the accident scene did stop. And out of the vehicle stepped a 21-year-old man. He would help. His name was Jonathan Antler-Paquette. The past tense is used here because Jonathan, though he didn't know it, when he exited his own vehicle which he had carefully parked at the side of the highway, hadn't much longer to live.

On seeing the overturned van, Jonathan pulled his car to the shoulder, and approached the van. The man inside explained to Jonathan's parents later that he "was surprised to see a young man" approaching but overwhelmed with relief. Neither Jonathan's expectations of acting the Good Samaritan or the trapped man's relief at immediate rescue, as it happened, came to fruition.



Jonathan had studied computer technology and Internet security at Algonquin College. He lived with his mother, Kimberley Ada Antler at Victoria Harbour, commuting to his Toronto job with Harris Rebar as a rodbuster, laying, tying reinforcing rebar steel at construction sites. He was, in fact, on his way to pick up someone he worked with, when he deviated from his immediate purpose, to stop and help a stranger in need.

When Jonathan had pulled over and approached the van he was focusing on the man trapped within. Evidently he wasn't aware, didn't notice an oncoming tractor-trailer. The driver of the tractor-trailer attempted to stop while approaching the scene, but in the process the trailer jackknifed, blocking the southbound lane, striking Jonathan.

Another, fourth vehicle slammed into the trailer. Neither the tractor-trailer driver nor the subsequent pickup driver that slammed into the trailer was hurt. Jonathan Antler-Paquette died immediately at the scene of his intention to rescue someone in need of help.