Nine-year-old Ottawa boy only surviving family member after car crash on Highway 50 in Quebec

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Ottawa’s Czech community is reeling following the deaths of three members of a family in a head-on collision in Quebec, leaving a nine-year-old boy as the sole surviving member.

Erik Nattkemper, 39, Lucie Kodouskova, 43, and their daughter Liliana, 6, and son Alex, 9, had spent the weekend visiting friends in Montreal and were on their way back to Ottawa for an event at the Czech embassy in the late afternoon of May 20 when another vehicle heading east veered into their path and struck their car head-on.

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Friends were waiting at the Czech embassy In Ottawa for the family to arrive. After there was no word, they concluded that the family had decided to stay in Montreal.

“The next morning, we found out they never made it,” said David Benes, a friend of the family.

Alex was treated in a hospital in Montreal and has since been transferred to CHEO with leg injuries. Doctors are optimistic Alex, a U9 player with the West End Hockey League, will return to playing hockey, said Benes.

“Lucie and the whole family were the heart of the community. They are an inspiration,” said Benes, an administrator at the Ottawa Czech school, where Koďouskova, a certified teacher, taught Czech language and culture.

A Czech native, Koďouskova completed her teacher certification in the Czech Republic. She was certified as a teacher in Ontario in 2019 and has recently worked as a supply teacher in Ottawa.

Nattkemper, a financial analyst with the federal government, was born in Saskatoon and had both Canadian and German citizenship. During his youth, he lived in Ottawa and the San Francisco Bay area. He studied economics, accounting and finance at North Carolina State University starting 2003 and later studied at the University of Tübingenin Germany to improve his proficiency in German.

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Nattkemper met Koďouskova when she came to Canada about a dozen years ago.

“Lucie was bubbly. Every person she met, she was looking to know that person and link them to others,” said Benes, an administrator at the Czech School in Ottawa, which offers classes in Czech language and culture at Hopewell Avenue School for elementary students and at Glebe Collegiate for high school students and adults. 

There had been a Czech school in Ottawa for decades, but Koďouskova helped revitalize the program and attract new students.

“It just took off,” said Benes. “If she had not been around, it would have had a hard time achieving what it has achieved.”

Koďouskova’s love of Czech culture was infectious. Nattkemper played along in skits posted in Youtube to explain beginner Czech. In one skit, Nattkemper played a waiter while Koďouskova played a customer who spoke only Czech. Nattkemper donned a bear costume for another skit.

On their rare nights out, the couple would go dancing. The family enjoyed the outdoors, and spent their summer holiday visiting family in the Czechia, said Benes. Koďouskova made sure that every tradition and holiday was observed with handmade crafts and food.

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“They were lovely together,” said Benes.

A spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec said the collision happened on Highway 50 shortly after 5:15 p.m. on May 20 in the municipality of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, across the Ottawa River from Hawkesbury. 

“For some unexplained reason” another car headed east swerved out of its lane and into the path of the westbound car carrying the family, resulting in the collision and igniting a fire, said the spokesperson.

The collision remains under investigation, however that stretch of Highway 50 is not a divided highway. The highway, which stretches from Mirabel to Gatineau, has been under scrutiny over a high number of serious and fatal collisions, with calls for the Quebec government to quickly adopt measures to make the highway safer.

Nattkemper, Kodouskova and Liliana, known as “LIli,” are survived by Nattkemper’s parents and brother, who live in Washington state, and Kodouskova’s father and other family members in the Czechia.

The Czech community has posted a GoFundMe account to assist Alex and offset travel costs for the families, as well as honour Kodouskova’s legacy of Czech education.  

No plans for a funeral or memorial service have been announced.

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