The Ottawa medical community is mourning the loss tonight of a well-known doctor.
And a woman from New York State is facing charges in relation to his death. Dr. Ian Frost was killed Saturday afternoon when his motorcycle struck an SUV on county road 43 near Chesterville.
The driver of the vehicle has been charged with failing to yield to traffic. According to friends, Dr. Ian Frost had two passions: medicine and motorcycles.
He worked as an anesthesiologist at the Riverside campus and had owned at one time up to 5 motorbikes. Saturday afternoon, OPP police traffic investigators were at the scene of the accident at County Road 43 and County Road 7 in North Dundas Township. On the ground was a crumpled motorbike, with a licence plate “IF”; Frost’s signature plate he used for all his vehicles. Frost had been driving up county road 43 near Chesterville around 5 p.m. Saturday when police say an SUV failed to stop at a stop sign and hit him. The 69=-year-old was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
‘He was a very, very nice person,’ says Janet York, who worked with Dr. Frost in labor and delivery at the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital. He had practiced anesthesiology for more than 30 years.
‘It just shocks me,’ says York, ‘because he drove a motorcycle but was so safe, very safety conscious.’
Frost had a passion for both cars and motorbikes. At one point, he owned five motorcycles, says his friend, Jason Thoms. Thoms is with the Goodtime Centre in Ottawa, where Frost bought his bikes.
‘In fact, his dining room had been converted into a motorcycle shrine,’ says Thoms. ‘He left his motorbikes there in the winter and the summer as well. He was very much an enthusiast.’
Bill Parisi knew Frost well. They were neighbors and fellow riders.
‘Of all the people I ride with he's the safest most talented rider I know,’ says Parisi, ‘and I'm just shocked that something like this could happen to him. It's a great loss.’
Parisi says Frost raced as well and was a master champion in Ontario. He had planned to go to the track with Parisi's son, who knew Frost as "Mr. Safety."
‘It just goes to show it can happen to anyone, as safe as you are, says David Parisi. ‘All the drivers have to look out and make sure you're doing shoulder checks and watch out for those bikes because they're a little easier to miss.’
The driver of the SUV, Sandy Holder-Cobb of Brooklyn New York, was not injured in the collision; neither were her two children. She's been charged under the Highway Traffic Act with failing to yield to traffic and will have to return to Ontario in a couple months to appear in court.
