KITCHENER -- Adam Keller liked living on the edge. The Kitchener teen loved the thrill of performing gravity-defying tricks on his skateboard or snowboard.
Perhaps it was his need for excitement that abruptly ended his young life early yesterday morning.
The 18-year-old died when two cars, carrying 11 people between them and racing each other at high speeds, went out of control on Fairway Road South and hit hydro poles.
"He was a free spirit," said his father, Jim Keller, of the Preston area of Cambridge.
And the Grade 12 Eastwood Collegiate student "loved to have a good time," said his stepmother Liz Keller.
Keller lived in Kitchener with his mother and stepfather, Donna and Peter Baker, and his sister Amy, 20.
The accident happened just after 3:30 a.m. near the former Office Place outlet, across from Fairview Park mall.
"We're lucky we don't have 11 dead children today," said Waterloo regional police traffic Const. Tim Millie.
Millie said a Chevrolet Cavalier, carrying six young people, had been racing a Nissan 240, carrying five.
He said the investigation showed no evidence that the cars hit each other before crashing into the poles.
The Cavalier, in which Keller was a passenger, hit a utility pole six metres (18 feet) in the air, "only six inches underneath the telephone wires."
"They were flying," said Millie, who estimated the cars were travelling between 140 and 150 km/h when the drivers lost control after rounding a curve.
He said although all the cars' occupants had been at a party, "alcohol was definitely not a factor. Speed was."
Despite the severity of the crash, he said only one other passenger in the Cavalier, a 19-year-old woman from Kitchener, was seriously injured. She was taken to Hamilton General Hospital with a broken back.
Another female teenager riding in the Cavalier was kept in hospital here for observation, said Millie.
All the injured were in the Cavalier and most were ejected when it hit the pole, he said.
None of the five occupants in the other vehicle required hospitalization even though that vehicle bounced off two poles when it left the road.
Keller was going to graduate from high school in a week and hoped to become a tool and die apprentice.
"He was trying to aim for all those goals," his stepmother said. "And it was taken away before he got a chance to start."
She said the outgoing teen had a knack for making others laugh and was always willing to help friends and his large family, including three stepbrothers and a stepsister.
"He had a way of getting into people's hearts . . . he was just a lovable kid," Liz Keller said.
Power was interrupted to about 1,500 addresses, and traffic heading towards Highway 8 was diverted into the opposite lane while police investigated.
<img src="http://www.therecord.com/graphics/17772-6427.jpg" border=0>
Please don't race with other passengers in the car, and please keep racing to the track. Both cars especially should have been destroyed by Tiburons in a road race so in other words it could have been a Tiburon travelling at 180 km/h not a Cavalier or 240SX.
Be Safe.
<hr noshade width=60% size=1 align=left>1999 Hyundai Sonata GL V6
H7 Blue Eurolite
GLS Chrome Grill
Custom Intake/Header/Exhaust
55 shot Nitrous Express
--no longer with me--
1997 Hyundai Tiburon
Was a brave soul when combating the evil forces.
Perhaps it was his need for excitement that abruptly ended his young life early yesterday morning.
The 18-year-old died when two cars, carrying 11 people between them and racing each other at high speeds, went out of control on Fairway Road South and hit hydro poles.
"He was a free spirit," said his father, Jim Keller, of the Preston area of Cambridge.
And the Grade 12 Eastwood Collegiate student "loved to have a good time," said his stepmother Liz Keller.
Keller lived in Kitchener with his mother and stepfather, Donna and Peter Baker, and his sister Amy, 20.
The accident happened just after 3:30 a.m. near the former Office Place outlet, across from Fairview Park mall.
"We're lucky we don't have 11 dead children today," said Waterloo regional police traffic Const. Tim Millie.
Millie said a Chevrolet Cavalier, carrying six young people, had been racing a Nissan 240, carrying five.
He said the investigation showed no evidence that the cars hit each other before crashing into the poles.
The Cavalier, in which Keller was a passenger, hit a utility pole six metres (18 feet) in the air, "only six inches underneath the telephone wires."
"They were flying," said Millie, who estimated the cars were travelling between 140 and 150 km/h when the drivers lost control after rounding a curve.
He said although all the cars' occupants had been at a party, "alcohol was definitely not a factor. Speed was."
Despite the severity of the crash, he said only one other passenger in the Cavalier, a 19-year-old woman from Kitchener, was seriously injured. She was taken to Hamilton General Hospital with a broken back.
Another female teenager riding in the Cavalier was kept in hospital here for observation, said Millie.
All the injured were in the Cavalier and most were ejected when it hit the pole, he said.
None of the five occupants in the other vehicle required hospitalization even though that vehicle bounced off two poles when it left the road.
Keller was going to graduate from high school in a week and hoped to become a tool and die apprentice.
"He was trying to aim for all those goals," his stepmother said. "And it was taken away before he got a chance to start."
She said the outgoing teen had a knack for making others laugh and was always willing to help friends and his large family, including three stepbrothers and a stepsister.
"He had a way of getting into people's hearts . . . he was just a lovable kid," Liz Keller said.
Power was interrupted to about 1,500 addresses, and traffic heading towards Highway 8 was diverted into the opposite lane while police investigated.
<img src="http://www.therecord.com/graphics/17772-6427.jpg" border=0>
Please don't race with other passengers in the car, and please keep racing to the track. Both cars especially should have been destroyed by Tiburons in a road race so in other words it could have been a Tiburon travelling at 180 km/h not a Cavalier or 240SX.
Be Safe.
<hr noshade width=60% size=1 align=left>1999 Hyundai Sonata GL V6
H7 Blue Eurolite
GLS Chrome Grill
Custom Intake/Header/Exhaust
55 shot Nitrous Express
--no longer with me--
1997 Hyundai Tiburon
Was a brave soul when combating the evil forces.
