A new dad with a new job, Nanaimo’s Jonathan Seidel was living his dream. The 36-year-old was killed when the work truck he was driving overturned on the Malahat on Wednesday.
Seidel was headed to Victoria when his sewage truck collided with a blue SUV in the southbound lanes near Goldstream Provincial Park at 8:10 a.m.
Seidel, who had worked for Nanaimo-based DBL Disposal Services for three months, was pronounced dead and the SUV driver was taken to hospital with undisclosed injuries. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
The two-vehicle crash closed the highway in both directions until about 4 p.m. Traffic was diverted to the Pacific Marine Circle Route, via Highway 14 through Port Renfrew and Highway 18 through Lake Cowichan, a detour of at least three hours.
The Brentwood/Mill Bay ferry was full for the day by 12:30 p.m. as motorists tried to avoid the crash. Only 22 vehicles and 150 passengers can travel on each 25-minute trip.
About 750 litres of treated sewage leaked from the tanker and an unknown amount of diesel spilled from the truck’s saddle tanks, the Ministry of Environment said. The spill was contained to the roadway and waterways were not affected.
The Ministry of Transportation said crashes closed the Malahat an average of 12 times per year, for an average of two hours per incident, between 2011 and 2016.
Seidel and his wife, Randa Seidel, have a two-month-old daughter, born in June.
“I lost my best friend, someone I could rely on,” Randa said. “He was my rock — no matter what the situation, he always made the best of it and he always made sure he provided for me and Hazel.”
The couple, who met in their hometown of Saskatoon more than a decade ago when they worked for West Coast Amusements, moved to Nanaimo, where Seidel had lived as a child, about five years ago.
They set a wedding date of July 7, 2018. Randa returned home from a trip to Saskatoon to buy her wedding dress only to find out she was pregnant — due July 9.
“Hazel trumped the wedding,” said Randa, laughing through her tears. The couple’s plans were shelved and they married on Jan. 10, 2018.
For a man who longed to be a father and complete his family, “it’s very unfair,” Randa said.
The couple had struggled for years to have a child, and Hazel’s arrival was the dream.
Seidel held his nieces Aurora and Acacia like china cups, but “he was a natural” with his own daughter, said sister Jennifer Kurucz. “She meant everything to him and he was in a really great place.”
Seidel took his wife’s last name as his own. Mother-in-law Dixie Seidel said his father left him at age four, and he didn’t want to carry that name forward.
“He was like a son to us,” she said. “He was just part of the family. We loved him. I think he took our name because of the family connection.”
Seidel was going to be a different kind of father, always there, his sister said. When the siblings lost their mother, Janice, 55, to cancer last year, family meant all the more.
“It’s devastating,” Kurucz said. “He was missing that father connection, so building his family was what he always wanted.”
Seidel, his mother and sister moved to Nanaimo from Saskatoon in 1996. “He was a wonderful older brother,” Kurucz said. “In many ways he was my protector, and he was silly and a lot of fun to be around.”
But life wasn’t easy for her brother and it got harder in his adult life. It was a struggle when his father left their mother, and Seidel, who had Tourette’s syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities, was bullied and teased.
“He always felt like a little bit of an outsider,” Kurucz said.
Seidel attended Departure Bay Elementary School, Wellington Secondary and John Barsby Secondary.
“I think it’s important to know that with his disabilities he persevered and graduated,” Kurucz said. “That was a badge of honour for him.
“He didn’t have the easiest life as an adult, but he loved his wife and his daughter and driving and so he had everything he wanted.”
Family including Jonathan Seidel’s grandmother, Fay Roadhouse, are travelling from Saskatoon to mourn.
Condolences have been pouring in and a fundraising page has been set up by Kurucz.
Randa Seidel was self-employed and is now a stay-at-home mom. “She has no EI benefits and Jonathan’s paycheques are what supported their young family,” Kurucz said.
— With files from Jeff Bell and Katie DeRosa
• Donations to the Jonathan Seidel Memorial Fund can be made via gofundme.com/606g0a8
