Elderly man dies in crash in Niagara Falls

An 83-year-old man is dead following a single vehicle crash in front of Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls around 7:30 Saturday morning.

Jacky Dandrea lives near the school and says the collision shook her house. “Suddenly the ground shook and it was like crash, and I thought actually a tree had fallen down.”

The driver has been identified as 83-year-old Stanley Stevens of Niagara Falls. Police say he was coming around the bend at Catalina Street and Pitton Road when he lost control, smashing through a fence and colliding into a concrete flower planter and finally a concrete wall in front of the school.

“I came running out and my friend had gone to the vehicle that had hit that wall and she tried to see if the driver was still alive,” said Dandrea.

Stevens was pronounced dead at the scene. Neighbours say they believe he may have crashed because of a medical issue.

This is the sixth serious crash in the Niagara region this month. Earlier this week, a man in his 50s was taken to a hospital in Buffalo with serious head injuries after his cargo van collided with a minivan in Stevensville.

Also, a 61-year-old man lost control of his car on Highway 20 in West Lincoln, going airborne and ending up stuck in some trees. He suffered serious head and chest injuries.

On Mother’s Day, a 39-year-old woman from St. Catharines was killed when police say she was going so fast she lost control and struck a tree in a ditch.

Finally, at the beginning of May, a serious crash on the QEW in St. Catharines killed a Hamilton truck driver and a man from Brampton after two cars and a tanker truck collided near Highway 406.

In Saturday’s collision, no damage was reported at the school and no other injuries occurred.