A 20-year-old man killed in an ATV crash involving a school bus in Norwich is being remembered as an avid fisherman and friend to many in his tight-knit community.
Tyler Pare, who died of his injuries in hospital after last Thursday’s crash, was always the “life of the party” and was so well known and liked in his small town that his family joked he was Norwich’s real mayor, his mother said Sunday.
“He knew everyone and everything that was going on,” Jenessa Lavigne said. “Everyone was just drawn to him.”
Pare had just started a new job as a contractor and was really taking to it, his mother said. He loved working with his hands, being outdoors and knew his way around a rod and reel.
“He was a great fisherman. He’d fish anywhere and catch anything,” Lavigne said. “He loved it up north, we’d go camping off the grid and he would be at the docks catching bass all day and all night.”
A funeral for Pare, has been set for Norwich Baptist Church on Saturday afternoon, his obituary states.
“He had a big heart and was always there to give a helping hand,” the obituary reads.
Friends built a cross and set up a roadside memorial for Pare at the crash site on Friday, Lavigne said. The memorial has been growing ever since with flowers and mementoes placed there by Pare’s friends, she said.
Others in his group of friends are designing memorial decals for their trucks to remember the 20-year-old, Lavigne said. “This group of boys (Pare’s friends) are just incredible,” she said.
Pare was killed when an ATV and school bus collided on Highway 59, just north of Airport Road, in Norwich Twp., which is part of Oxford County, at about 3:40 pm on Thursday.
He was rushed to hospital where he later died from his injuries. No one on board the school bus was hurt, police said in a statement.
Oxford OPP on Friday morning identified the deceased as Tyler Hunter, 20, of Norwich. The 20-year-old was planning to legally change his surname to Pare, his mother’s maiden name, Lavigne said Sunday.
Pare is survived by his parents, four brothers and sisters and his grandmother.