Cadet killed in tobogganing accident
By Ian Elliot
Local News - Monday, November 28, 2005 @ 07:00
An 18-year-old first-year student at Royal Military College died in a tobogganing accident early yesterday morning on Fort Henry Hill.
Officer Cadet Lee Jarad Burym, a science and engineering student from Saskatchewan, died around 5 a.m. yesterday after he and five other cadets went for a late-night sledding party on the hill east of the college campus.
Police say Burym went down the steep hill, which is popular with sledders and snowboarders, alone in the dark. His companions became alarmed when he did not reappear at the top of the hill a few minutes later.
They began searching for him and found the cadet unresponsive and lying next to some trees at the bottom of the hill.
Police and emergency crews were called but he was pronounced dead at Kingston General Hospital. Police say he died of a broken neck.
His father Eugene, in Sturgis, Sask., a town of 627 northeast of Yorkton, was in shock.
He described his son as "a top-notch kid" who had a dream of becoming a mechanical engineer and following the military career he had started as a distinguished air cadet while a student at Sturgis Composite High School.
"His plans were good," he said, sadly, "but that doesn't much matter now."
He said his son was well known in the rural community and made friends quickly at the college.
"He had a lot of friends," said his father. "Everyone knows him here, and there. They all liked him."
The elder Burym said investigators had reassured him that foul play was not suspected in the death, nor was there any indication that his son was intoxicated at the time.
The accident happened just hours after the College's annual Christmas Ball on Saturday night.
College spokeswoman Lieut. Sue Stefko said the accident is under investigation by Kingston Police.
A military chaplain was made available to talk to the other sledders who were with Burym when he died, Stefko said.
The sledding party was not an authorized college event, nor was it a part of the annual ball that ended hours earlier.
The accident was reported to the rest of the RMC student body by college officials yesterday.
The school's flags will probably fly at half-staff today in remembrance of Burym, she said.
"He was so young."
Kingston Police investigators called the incident "a tragic accident."
The steepness of Fort Henry Hill has caused accidents in the past, even during daylight. Last year, a young girl was taken to hospital after crashing into a tree on the hill. Some parts of the property have signs prohibiting sledding, although they are rarely heeded.