Family and friends of a Woodstock man killed in a 2019 head-on crash with an impaired driver gave heartbreaking and tearful accounts Friday in a London court of how his death has forever changed their lives.
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Family and friends of a Woodstock man killed in a 2019 head-on crash with an impaired driver gave heartbreaking and tearful accounts Friday in a London court of how his death has forever changed their lives.
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On that day, Andrew Ferguson – a husband, father, son and friend – was struck and killed near Dorchester while riding his motorcycle.
“Everything just stopped,” Andrew’s brother Michael Ferguson recalled the moment he heard of his brother’s death July 8, 2019.
“The calls, the texts, his distinct laugh. The hugs, the wins, the meaningful exchanges. The many hours of golf and discussions about our plans. It all just stopped, ”he said in his victim statement at the virtual sentencing hearing for Kareem Husseini, 23, of London.
Husseini pleaded guilty Sept. 8 to impaired driving causing death in the crash that killed Ferguson.
Husseini grazed one vehicle and narrowly missed another before colliding head-on with Ferguson on Hamilton Road. Ferguson, who was ejected from his motorcycle, suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital, where he died.
Michael Ferguson said he still thinks about a missed call from his 40-year-old brother, just one day before he was killed.
“That’s one call I wish we had,” he said.
Husseini told Michael Ferguson and his family he “cannot apologize enough times” for the “pain and heartache” he brought them.
“That was the single biggest mistake of my life,” Husseini told the court. “If I could go back and change it, I would. I would give anything. I would give my own life. ”
It’s been two years since his family lost Andrew, but the timing doesn’t take away the sheer heartbreak expressed by his parents, wife, brother, sister and friends in their statements on Friday.
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Andrew’s wife Jennifer Ferguson said his loss had the most profound impact on her now six-year-old daughter Adisyn. “I have not always known how to answer the questions of my three-year-old, as to why her dad is in heaven, or if he is coming back,” she said, adding her daughter had to start attending therapy.
“Adisyn tells most children that she meets that her dad is in heaven and that he was killed on a motorcycle. This has now become her story right after her name. ”
Melissa Currie, a close friend to Ferguson, still drives by the scene of the crash that killed him, because of where she lives. “I have no choice but to drive by the accident site often. . . think of the day I received the call regarding his death each and every time, ”she said.
Despite having a “complicated friendship” at times, Currie said she adored Ferguson and felt their relationship was “headed in a new direction – a direction of understanding and acceptance,” she said.
“I will never know where our friendship would have went. I will never receive any more guidance around financial decisions, marriage, home renovations or how to use a chop saw properly from Andrew. ”
Husseini is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 2.
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