Video has recently emerged of a high-speed collision on Welland Road in Fonthill that totalled an expensive sports car earlier this summer.
Just after midnight on July 20, the driver of a black Maserati heading west on Welland appeared to lose control of his vehicle as it approached a curve, plowing into a tree on the south side of the roadway, veering sharply left into the oncoming lane, and coming to rest on the north-side boulevard. There were no reported injuries.
Some residents who heard the crash near the intersection of Fern Gate and Mussari Court, and who came outside to see what happened, say they overheard the driver tell a responding police constable that a fox had appeared in the road, causing him to swerve.
NRPS spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin tells PelhamToday that 3 District (Welland/Pelham) uniform officers were called to the area of Welland Road and Fern Gate following a single vehicle collision.
“When they arrived, investigation revealed that a 49-year-old male from Pelham was driving a 2015 black Maserati when he swerved to avoid hitting a wild animal then struck a tree before coming to a stop. No charges were laid.”
A neighbour who witnessed the driver’s interaction with police, and who does not wish to be named, says that the conversation seemed too short given the extent of damage to the vehicle.
“[The driver] was clearly driving too fast judging by the damage involved, but they didn’t even do an impaired [test] as far as I saw.”
Responding to a follow-up inquiry, Sabourin said of an impaired driving test, “I don’t have that information within the report, and that would not typically be disclosed.”
Home security video obtained by PelhamToday appears to contradict the driver’s assertion that an animal crossed his path.
In the video, the Maserati is seen travelling at high speed, apparently running a four-way stop at an intersection to the east, then continuing in a straight line before jumping the south-side curb and hitting a medium sized locust tree. The force of the impact causes the vehicle to careen left, across the opposite lane, where it comes to rest atop the north-side boulevard, narrowly missing a telephone utility box. No animals are visible.
Damage to the tree was substantial, but Pelham’s Director of Public Works, Jason Marr, says that while an inspection confirmed that it suffered a large wound, “It is a very healthy locust tree and will likely have no future affects.”
A longtime resident who lives close to the collision site and asked to be identified only as Soraya, tells PelhamToday that speeding has long been an issue along Welland Road.
“When we moved here 14 years ago it was already bad, but it has gotten much worse since the pandemic,” she says, asserting that the four-way stop which the Maserati driver appears to have ignored is often not obeyed even in daylight.
“It’s like a decoration, and the police do nothing.”
Other residents voiced similar complaints about lax traffic enforcement along Welland Road. As a traffic-calming measure, the Town of Pelham recently installed an automated speed warning sign on the south side of the roadway between Effingham and Haist.
In response, NRPS spokesperson Phil Gavin tells PelhamToday that only four overall complaints have been lodged with the police this year regarding Welland Road traffic, including one for speeding, which Gavin said prompted an enforcement effort.
“In 2022 we had two traffic complaints on Welland Road, both of those related to stop signs. We attended and conducted enforcement. Since 2018 we have charged / laid 195 provincial offence notices [tickets] for Highway Traffic Act offences [along Welland] of those 113 were for speeding.”
Gavin adds that residents may bring chronic matters to police attention through the NRPS Traffic Hotline.
Some residents also echo an eyewitness’s surprise that the Maserati driver was not cited for speeding. By correlating the security video with distance measurements, PelhamToday calculates that the vehicle was travelling at approximately 110 km/h when it hit the curb. The posted speed limit is 50 km/h.
Soraya, who is of Southeast Asian heritage, wonders whether the police response would have been the same for some other motorists.
“If that guy had brown skin, he would’ve been in handcuffs. A lot of people walk their dogs late at night here. He’s lucky he didn’t kill someone [and] just got to drive away.”
In fact, according to a resident who works in automotive repair and who saw the wreckage, the Maserati was a total loss.
“The only place that car was going was straight to the crusher,” he said.
