As soon as Gareth Callaway heard that his wife Terri had been killed by an alleged drunk driver while jogging in Richmond Hill Wednesday evening, he gave police a photograph of their four young children to give to the driver "when he sobers up.
“He’ll see a picture of four kids with no mother today and I want him to see that every day for the rest of his life,” Callaway told a reporter outside his upscale Oak Ridges home last night.
He invited anyone else contemplating drinking and driving over the holiday season to attend his wife’s funeral Monday.
“He has ruined one life and did a lot of damage to me and our children,” said Callaway, remarkably controlling his emotions while friends dropped off food and remembrances at the family home on Queensborough Court near Lake Wilcox.
Terri Callaway, 37, was killed instantly when a station wagon, believed to be travelling at a high rate of speed, mounted a curb and struck her on the sidewalk of North Lake Rd., not far from her residence, on a route that she regularly used for jogging.
Her husband said most nights she went for a jog after their children, aged 9, 8, 6 and 3, went to bed.
She left the home around 8:30 p.m. and it wasn’t long after that he saw flashing emergency lights from his rear window, on the next street south, near Yonge St. and King Rd.
“I knew my wife was out running, so I went to investigate,” he said.
Police kept him away from the scene and then escorted him home after determining the woman, who was not carrying identification in her jogging clothes, likely was his wife.
Police arrested a man at the scene and charged him with impaired driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death.
Matthew Junkert, 33, of Richmond Hill, appeared in Newmarket bail court yesterday afternoon. He said nothing as a justice of the peace remanded him in custody until Monday for a bail hearing.
Callaway, who operates his own personnel recruiting business, said his wife was a “phenomenal mother, a phenomenal wife and a tremendously warm person. Her legacy will be the four children she has left behind.”
He said he intends to buy a burial plot so the children have a place to go to remember their mother when they get older.
Arrangements for a funeral to be held Monday had not been completed last night.
This does hit home…I don’t live too far from Toronto. My wife also runs right after we get home from work when it’s dark and I have to really pressure her to wear one of those red flashing clipon lights. Only 50% of our area has sidewalks so she is running on the road too. A flasher likely wouldn’t have helped in this incident, but you never know.
This is by Lake Wilcox where I train every weekend in the summers and I know that I have run down the same street while training multiple times. This is horrible and I can’t imagine how out of control this guy must have been to do what he did. The news had footage of a light pole that came down on the opposite side of the sidewalk from the street.
I feel so horrible for this family. I have almost killed myself foolishly (but come away unscathed) running lights on foot and on my bike in Toronto and this poor woman was simply carefully running on a sidewalk.
ugh.
she was on the sidewalk. four kids.
i hope that canda’s reputation for good social services does not apply for whatever prison that drunk driver winds up in.
-charles
“He’ll see a picture of four kids with no mother today and I want him to see that every day for the rest of his life,” Callaway told a reporter outside his upscale Oak Ridges home last night.
Wow. That’s unreal.
Note to self - take cab home from LBS christmas party tonight…
The driver will likely receive a very light prison sentence (just guessing), and for those of you South of the border, Canadian law states that 1st time offenders penalized under federal law get MANDATORY parole after serving ONE THIRD of their sentence.
Oh yeah…and it gets better. If they violate parole and are put back inside, with say, for example, three years remaining on their sentence. You guessed it, serve one third of the remainder (yes, one year) and hit the road again.
With the fantastic social programs/health coverage etc, come the tree-hugging jail sentences. Btw, there are people campaigning right now that Canada’s in-mates are UNDERPAID.
This broke my heart from the first moment I heard it. It’s devastating when anyone is hit while biking or running, but even more so when there are young children who are affected. I don’t run at night anymore after a few people were hit and killed in “safe” neighborhoods. One woman a few years ago was killed while she was running in her neighborhood because a driver backed out of his driveway and hit her. You just never know who’s out there, so I stick to the treadmill when it’s dark.
A similar thing happened to me but the car missed by the narrowest of margins. I was on the sidewalk lost in my own thoughts when a woman who was apparently distracted by her fighting kids in the back seat ran up on the sidewalk. She never saw me and I never heard her… It was broad daylight and I always wear bright clothes. We both almost wet our pants when she almost took me out.
