Main St. wreck claims two lives
Published on September 2nd, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - The lives of two teenagers were tragically cut short this past weekend when an apparent cat and mouse game ended in a car accident on Main Street.
The accident claimed the lives of two local youths, Michael Canada, 19, of Saugus and his girlfriend of two months Janessa Kirschning, 16, of North Reading and is still under investigation by Stoneham and State police.
According to the latest reports by police, Canada, driving his 1993 Pontiac Grand Am with Kirschning as his passenger, may have been involved in a race of sorts with a dark colored Ford pick-up truck when the accident occurred at about 10 pm Saturday night. Witnesses told police that both vehicles were travelling northbound on Route 28, in front of the Merit Gas Station, when Canada lost control of his vehicle, crossed the median into oncoming traffic. The speed at which he was travelling and the way in which the car hit the median caused the Grand Am to flip onto its roof and crash into a van which was being driven by Stoneham resident Jong Lim, 37.
Lim was transported to the Robin Hood School where he was Med Flighted to Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was released on Sunday.
"He (Lim) is a very lucky individual," Police Chief Eugene Passaro said.
Canada and Kirschning, however, were not so lucky. Both were pronounced dead, Canada at the scene of the accident and Kirschning as she was being transported to Lahey Clinic in Burlington, after three sets of the Jaws of Life were used to extract the occupants of the Grand Am.
According to Passaro, eye witnesses have told police that an apparent game of cat and mouse was being played by Canada and a dark colored Ford pickup. Officer Kenneth Wilkins is leading the investigation.
According to the latest reports, it is believed that the truck had cut off Canada's vehicle, forcing him onto the median and into the southbound lane of traffic.
"We are still waiting for someone to come forward," Passaro said of the driver of the dark-colored truck. "We want (the driver) more than anything else as a witness."
The State Police Reconstruction team studied tire tracks at the scene of the accident and determined that Canada's Grand Am was travelling at approximately 70 miles an hour at the time of the accident.
Kirschning was about to enter her junior year at North Reading High School. Canada was a recent graduate of Northeast Regional Metropolitan Vocational School and, according to a friend, was planning on attending Mass. Bay Community College this semester.
The accident shut down Route 28 for over three hours Saturday night and police were on the scene again on Sunday to study tire marks for use in tests by the State Police Reconstruction Team.
Anyone with information on the dark-colored Ford F150 or F250 which is believed to have been involved in the crash is asked to contact the Police Department at 438-1215.
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