‘AN ALL-AROUND GOOD GUY’
Tallman Truck Centre general manager Dwight McMillan plans to frame the uniform Cameron Scrim wore at the Stittsville repair business. Scrim was killed last May in a hit-and-run crash on Woodroffe Avenue. The other driver has been sent to prison.
Nobody knew hard work like Cameron Scrim.
Dyslexic and funny as hell, he spent his high school nights at the kitchen table with his champion, Janet Scrim. She didn’t want her son to get left behind, so she spent her evenings guiding him through homework. And she rallied his teachers to help him graduate. The day he presented his diploma to his mother was a defining moment in their lives.
Scrim always had to work harder than most, especially when it came to things some take for granted — like reading and writing. He triumphed over his so-called learning disabilities and graduated from an apprenticeship and landed his dream job as a transport truck mechanic. His colleagues at Tallman Truck Centre looked up to him. He couldn’t get the paperwork down but he was the guy you wanted under the hood.
His close-knit family had just celebrated his 31st birthday on April 23, 2017. He spent his last day of life — May 11 — attending his niece’s art show and his brotherin-law’s birthday party. He was a family man — the fun uncle, that brother who felt more like a best friend, and the son who played golf with his father.
He had a lovely girlfriend and had just bought a house. He was on his way.
But at 11:30 p.m. on May 11, Scrim met an untimely death at the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and Norice Street.
He was driving southbound in a Honda Civic and had just begun a left turn onto Norice. That’s when Jakob Wham, 20 at the time, blew a red, T-boning Scrim’s car. Wham was driving in the northbound lane, going 151 km/h in a 60 km/h zone.
On Monday, court heard how Wham ran from the scene and left Scrim to die alone. He ended up at his mother’s house and then lied to police saying he had been home all night with his girlfriend and that his family’s Hyundai Elantra had been reported stolen. At Wham’s behest, his girlfriend also lied to police to cover his tracks.
Days later, on Mother’s Day, Wham turned himself into police and confessed.
The young man stood in Ottawa court on Monday and pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death and was sentenced to two years in prison. The guilty plea spared the family what would have been a graphic trial.
One by one, Scrim’s family took turns reading victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing.
His mother didn’t have to introduce herself but she did:
“I’m Cameron’s mom,” she began.
In a tearful address to the man who killed her son, she said there were no words to make anyone understand her devastating loss.
She thinks of her son when a certain song come on the radio. She cringes every time she hears a car roaring by, going way too fast. She wonders what her son was thinking in his dying moments.
“How I hug his picture now instead of him … it never ends.”
His father, Byron, decided against writing a victim impact statement because he figured it wouldn’t do any good, let alone bring their son back.
Janet Scrim was inclined to agree but she wanted to put a face to the victim for anyone who would listen.
She wanted everyone to know just how much her son was loved.
She told the hushed courtroom that there’s no sense harbouring feelings of hatred or a desire for revenge. That, she said, will only make you a “miserable, bitter person and God knows Cameron would never want us to live like that.”
She gave her last words to her son. She looked directly at Wham, and on behalf of her dead son, wished him “good luck.”
Janet Scrim said it was a miracle that Wham had escaped the awful crash without a scratch. She said his second chance in life was meant to be and urged him to use it and do good in the world, and help others out like Cameron did.
“He was an all-around good guy and his co-workers looked up to him,” said Dwight McMillan, general manager for Tallman Truck Centre.
The truck repair garage is going to put Cameron’s uniform on display at the shop. His tool box has been donated to the Truck and Coach Program at Algonquin College, where his family has established a scholarship fund in his name.
In victim impact statements by other family members, Wham was portrayed as a selfish coward who left someone to die alone only to later lie to police to cover his tracks. Scrim’s family spoke of their devastating loss, one that has altered their daily lives and notably what used to be fun family holidays. They called it a “senseless” death.
The judge called the case “tragic” and noted the guilty plea spared the victim’s family from reliving the awful details.
Wham was sentenced to two years in prison and will be banned from driving for 10 years.
At the time of the deadly crash, Wham was driving without a licence. It had been suspended for careless driving.