'Everyone is devastated': Hockey community mourns loss of young leader
CTV
The hockey community in Chatham-Kent and beyond is mourning the sudden death of a player caught in a highway crash this week in London.
The hockey community in Chatham-Kent and beyond is mourning the sudden death of a player caught in a highway crash this week in London.
Craig Spence, a 22-year-old man from Chatham, has been identified by some of those closest to him as the victim in a fatal crash on Highway 401 on Tuesday afternoon.
“Everyone is devastated,” said Bob Price, the general manager of the Blenheim Blades. “There’s nothing but sorrow.”
Spence was the captain of the Blades after playing four seasons along the blue line for the Chatham Maroons and was a draft pick of the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League.
It was around 3 p.m. on Tuesday when Ontario Provincial Police report officers were called to a collision between a transport truck and a pick-up truck in the eastbound lanes of Highway 401 near Colonel Talbot Road. OPP report the crash resulted in the ejection of the driver from the passenger vehicle.
The driver of the pick-up truck was pronounced dead at the scene.
The sudden and violent death has been met with an outpouring grief and condolences.