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Two families lost sons in crash

An aspiring actor and a father were killed when one's motorcycle collided with the other's SUV.

By JONATHAN ABEL, Times Staff Writer
Published January 9, 2008

An SUV was making a U-turn Monday in Palm Harbor when a speeding northbound motorcycle hit it. Both vehicles caught fire. The driver of the SUV and the motorcycle driver died.
	[Gay Norton]

ADVERTISEMENT Jack R. Taschereau, 46, was a fisherman and coin collector. He was driving the sports utility vehicle in the crash. Craig M. Hales, 22, a graduate of East Lake High School in 2004, was driving the motorcycle.

PALM HARBOR - One was a hard-luck crabber looking for rare coins on his day off.

The other was a young man with a suspended license riding the motorcycle his family hated.

The lives of Jack R. Taschereau, 46, and Craig M. Hales, 22, intersected Monday in Palm Harbor, when Hales' bike rammed Taschereau's sports utility vehicle.

Their vehicles flipped and fell to the ground in a fireball that shut down northbound U.S. 19 for more than three hours.

The Florida Highway Patrol has not released the names of the victims, but the families of both men said Tuesday that troopers have told them to expect the worst. And Hales' family said they were heartsick that two families had lost sons.

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In the hours before the crash, Taschereau was engaging in his favorite pastime: coin collecting.

A massive heart attack last year forced the crabber to take some time off, which led to a rebirth of his fascination with rare coins.

Since then, he'd worked out deals with local bank tellers to hold any interesting pieces they came across. Every week or so, like the good fisherman he was, Taschereau would make a circuit of banks, checking the traps.

The Palm Harbor resident was driving between banks when he made the fateful U-turn.

Jo Ann Ames, Taschereau's mother, heard the bad news Monday night when authorities came to her door. The intensity of the crash left little to identify the driver, but a few scraps of paper in the SUV led them to her.

She told authorities about his medical history. They said it would take a little while to get complete confirmation.

Then the medical examiner mentioned something unusual, Ames said. He said there were a bunch of half dollars in the victim's pocket.

Ames knew it was her son.

He left behind an 11-year-old boy, Joshua, who lives with his mother in New Port Richey. Father and son loved fishing and chess and arguing about NASCAR.

It was a wrenching conclusion to a tortured 45 years.

"It'd be different if he had a good, prosperous life and all, but he struggled his whole life," Ames said. Small problems always lingered and festered until they became big ones.

At 19, Taschereau was thrown from his motorcycle by a driver running a red light. A quarter century later, his leg still hurt so much from the crash that he had to wear flip-flops everywhere.

Three years ago, Taschereau was anchored in the gulf when a shrimping vessel plowed into his boat. He almost sank.

The heart attack last year left him physically diminished. He couldn't pull the traps up by hand anymore so he joined with a friend, Sam Hart, and they worked Hart's boat together, the Crabby Cracker.

"You couldn't find a man who worked harder," Hart said. They talked just before the crash Monday. Taschereau had some errands to run then he was going to help ready the boat.

But Taschereau never showed up.

- - -

Craig Hales came to the crash scene from another direction.

He was 22, athletic and popular. His parents, Raymond and Tracey Hales, said he was just three days from starting firefighter training.

Hales' dream was to become an actor in Hollywood. He took acting classes in Orlando and had been an extra in a handful of movies.

Getting in shape for the fire academy, however, was Hales' immediate goal.

He started Monday with a protein shake. Then he told his father he was going to the gym, just a few miles up U.S. 19 from their Palm Harbor home.

It was the first nice day in a while so Hales drove his green Kawasaki Ninja bike.

Witnesses to the crash said the motorcycle appeared to be traveling faster than 100 mph, authorities said.

Raymond Hales said the family is devastated not only by the loss of their son but by the pain the crash caused for the Taschereau family. He said his son had a problem with speeding but was otherwise a sensible man and a very good person.

"When they're that young they feel invincible, that's the shame of it," Hales said. "We used to hate him having that bike for this reason."

The family moved from England 18 years ago and had been living in Palm Harbor for the past six years. Hales graduated from East Lake High School in 2004. He earned money working as a valet at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Besides his parents, he lived with his sister Rachael, 19, and a brother Charlie, 14. He had each family member's name tattooed on his body, along with the three lions of the English national soccer team's crest.

State driving records show Hales has been ticketed five times since 2003 for speeding or reckless driving. His driver's license had been suspended since July for failing to appear in court on a Pinellas ticket.

"He was such a good kid," Raymond Hales said of his son. "I didn't want it to seem like he was reckless."

Times researchers Caryn Baird and Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 9, 2008, 07:07:14]