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Friends and colleagues are remembering a motorcycle driver killed in a south London crash as a loving father and devoted hockey trainer who made a big impression on the people he met.
Friends are identifying the man killed in Friday’s crash at the southern end of the city as Joe Gowers, a former team trainer for the London Nationals and St. Marys Lincolns.
“He was a really friendly guy. He’d do anything to help the players that were under his leadership. He was an ultra-competitor. He loved the game of hockey,” said Pat Powers, general manager of the St. Marys Lincolns and former general manager and coach of the Nationals.
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“He put in lots of long hours to do what was needed. He was a guy you could always rely on.”
Powers first met Gowers when he was working for the Nationals in 2014. Gowers’ last season with the Lincolns was in 2022-23, Powers said, when night shift work at CAMI Automotive in Ingersoll prevented him from working with the team in 2023-24.
News of Gowers death has come as a serious shock to the hockey community, Powers said.
“He brought really good energy,” Powers said. “His heart was always in the right spot. He was always willing to help no matter what was going on.”
A motorcycle driver was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries at about 1:30 p.m. Friday after a crash involving another vehicle at the intersection of Colonel Talbot Road and Southminster Bourne, police said. The driver of the other vehicle remained at the scene, police said.
London police announced Saturday the man had died from his injuries in hospital. Police did not release his identity and appealed to the public for dash-cam or surveillance footage of the crash.
In a post on Facebook Saturday evening, the London Nationals expressed condolences to Gowers’ friends and family.
“Joe brought a positive energy to the team and constantly looked out for the boys,” the team wrote.
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The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, which the Nationals and Lincolns are part of, expressed sadness about Gowers’s sudden passing and said he was a Nationals staff member from 2012 to 2022 before joining with the Lincolns in 2023.
London police said Saturday that the investigation into the fatal crash is ongoing.
Friday’s crash is the 10th fatal collision in the London-region involving motorcycles since early July, most on rural roads.
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