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Young man killed in Naughton crash, says witness

The man who was killed in a crash on Municipal Road 55 in Naughton late Friday night appeared to be in his mid-20s, said one of the first people to arrive at the scene.
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By 9 a.m. Saturday only small debris remained at the site of head-on collision between a car and ATV on Municipal Road 55 in Naughton the previous night. The ATV driver was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Photo by Jonathan Migneault.

The man who was killed in a crash on Municipal Road 55 in Naughton late Friday night appeared to be in his mid-20s, said one of the first people to arrive at the scene.

“I was in my backyard and I just heard an engine cut out,” said Lucy Gauthier, who lives on Municipal Road 55 near the intersection with Simon Lake Drive, where the crash occured.

That sound was followed by a loud crash.

Gauthier was in her back yard at the time, but quickly ran to the road.

“All I could see was a car in a ditch and a bunch of debris everywhere,” she said.
Gauthier said she grabbed a flashlight and ran to the site of the crash. She used the flashlight to warn other drivers about the debris.

When she arrived at the scene she first saw a car in a ditch. According to police it was traveling westbound when it collided with an ATV head-on.

The car's driver was a man under 50, Gauthier said, who was with his daughter, who appeared to be a teenager.

“His face was all bloody. I asked if he was alright,” she said. “He seemed to be okay, but the guy on the road, he was gone after he got hit.”

When police arrived at the scene around midnight they pronounced the ATV driver dead at the site of the crash.

Gauthier said it appeared as though the man was driving his ATV on a trail across the highway, and was struck by the car when he attempted to cross the road.

To cross the road he had to climb a small incline first, and Gauthier said it sounded as though he did it at high speed.

The front end of the car that collided with the ATV was crushed back to the windshield, Gauthier said.

The car did not flip over, but was on the side of the road when she arrived at the scene.
“It's traumatizing,” she said. “I walk this road every day.”

Another witness had a slightly different recollection of events.

Larry McAllister lives near Municipal Road 55, and said he heard a loud bang when he had his dog out in his back yard.

He ran to the street and said he saw the driver of the car, who had a cut over his eye and looked shocked.

But McAllister said the driver appeared to be around 35, and his daughter looked as though she was around nine years old.

He said the ATV driver appeared to be a young man, or possibly a teenager.

McAllister said he has seen ATV drivers speeding along the shoulder of road in the past, but could not confirm if the young man killed in the crash had done so.

The Greater Sudbury Police Service's traffic management unit is investigating the crash and will provide more information once next of kin have been notified.

Police re-opened Municipal Road 55 to traffic at around 3:45 a.m. Saturday.