Teen lost in Vanscoy crash loved music, outdoors

Matthew Stronach was planning a trip to the mountains with his dad and aunt. He had plans of becoming a radio DJ after high school.

But now his family is grieving and at a loss, after a crash on Highway 7 Wednesday claimed the teen’s life.

Stronach, 17, was in the passenger seat of a pickup truck, waiting to turn left off the highway in Vanscoy when the truck was sent into oncoming traffic and struck by an eastbound semi.

The Bedford Road Collegiate student was pronounced dead at the scene, and his 17-year-old girlfriend — who was driving the pickup — is still in hospital.

“It’s so hard,” Ryan Stronach, Matthew’s father, told 650 CKOM in an interview Thursday.

“I just talked with him two days ago and he was very excited, he was looking at getting his first job.”

The teen had a passion for music, and was looking forward to getting into the radio industry once he had completed Grade 12.

“Music was always a big part of his personality,” Ryan said.

“He loved to converse with people and talk about all kinds of things, and he was interested in radio to make that (his career).”

While Stronach lived with his mother, he and his dad had been developing a stronger relationship, taking cycling trips up near Prince Albert through the fall.

They had plans to do more travelling in 2019.

“We were able to spend some time way out in the forest, and enjoy a little bit of a camping trip,” Ryan said.

“It was a prelude of what was going to follow this summer, we were planning trips into the mountains with his auntie.”

The cause of the collision hasn’t been determined by RCMP, as officers continue to investigate.

Ryan said his son and girlfriend were waiting to turn left off of Highway 7 to go south on Highway 762, when a half-ton truck hauling a trailer tried to swerve out of their way and clipped the back end of their pickup, sending them into the eastbound lanes.

A double-trailer semi heading eastbound then collided with the pickup.

“It was just a pure accident,” Ryan said. “No one meant to do this.”

He suggested the driver of the half-ton truck that clipped the pickup his son was in did everything he could to avoid a collision.

“He had some weight behind him (in the trailer) … The truck driver didn’t see them until it was a little too late,” Ryan said.

The Humboldt-based dad added he’s having a difficult time figuring out what to do in the wake of his son’s death.

“Just lost, right?” he said.

“Everybody wants to help and support, but I don’t even know how to ask for help.”

A GoFundMe account has been set up by family friends to help Stronach’s family with funeral costs and support.