A fiery crash in Brampton that took the lives of four people on Thanksgiving Monday may be the result of a street race, Peel police say.
The devastating crash happened when a 1998 Pontiac Trans Am crossed a median near Bovaird and Gillingham drives and smashed into a Kia Soul, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.
Peel police said Wednesday that surveillance camera video showed 49-year-old Calisto Mendonca was travelling west at an “extremely high rate of speed” next to a second speeding vehicle also travelling west.
The video evidence, which hasn’t been made public, apparently shows Mendonca suddenly change lanes where he then loses control of the vehicle, veers into oncoming traffic and slams into the Kia.
The occupants of the Kia – 24-year-old Brian McGinnis, his 22-year-old girlfriend Lauren Bouchard and her 16-year-old sister Michelle – were heading home from a Thanksgiving dinner with family at the time. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
Mendonca was also killed in the crash.
Police now believe that Mendonca and second vehicle may have been street racing when the crash occurred.
Investigators said it is “very likely” the driver of the second vehicle is aware of the collision.
“Our investigators would like to speak with that driver,” Staff Sgt. Gary Carty of the Major Collision Bureau said in the news release.
Though police have not released any other information pertaining to the second vehicle, they are appealing to anyone who may have seen the Trans Am and the second vehicle street racing that night on Bovaird Drive to contact them.
Anyone with such information is being asked to call investigators with the Major Collision Bureau at 905-453-2121, ext. 3710 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
