•THE TORONTO STAR Saturday, May 23, 1992 A17

Police probe crashthat killed woman

By Drew HasselbackTORONTO STAR

Police are interviewing threenevf witnesses to a car crash inwhich a women was hit by anout-or-control car as she left aYonge St. grocery store.Marlene Joan (Lynn) Coombs,wife of children's television starErnest Coombs, was killed instantly Thursday when she washit,by the car and thrownthrough the window of a downtown Loblaws store.

Coombs, 55, of Twyn RiversDr. .in Pickering, died of massiveinternal injuries. Her husband,Ernest, has appeared as Mr.Dressup on CBC-TV for 25 years.Hundreds of people saw the accident. Police are re-interviewingwitnesses, and are hoping morewill.phone investigators."I guess you could say we're

JteSlSd**'Constable JimMetro police are investigatingthe possibility that the driver of

the car may have had a seizurebefore the crash.vPXlve/ !¥** Trochym, 24, ofKennedy Rd., Scarborough, wastaken to St. Michael's Hospital,where he works in the hospital

hJH fu ,re? a seizure at thehospital while he was being treated for his injuries," Staff Sergeant Wally Watts said.

Trochym was listed in criticalcondition, but Farrell said Tro-guSencf SbIe t0 Speak *** Ws

Coombs was leaving the grocery store at Yonge anB Temperance Sts. south of Richmond St.around 4 p.m. when a blackBuick climbed a curb and hit her

in front of hundreds of horrifiedwitnesses.

A male pedestrian who was hitby the car escaped with minorinjuries, police said.A spokesperson at the CBCsaid the Mr. Dressup programwill continue as scheduled.

A family friend who answeredthe door at the Coombs's Pickering home yesterday said the family is not ready to make any public statement.

But Ken Westbrook, a closefriend and neighbor of the familyfor the past 22 years, saidCoombs's husband was "not doing very well."

Coombs opened a day-carecentre, the Butternut School, in

Coombs recently sold the daycare centre in hopes of spendingmore time travelling with herhusband. The couple liked tospend time at their cottage inMaine and on ski trips, Barnessaid.

Westbrook said Coombs's sonChris, 27, flew to Toronto fromhis home m California last night.u,£eJ*iau£hter» Catherine, Vwas at thejhouse with Coombs'stwo granddaughters and twostep-grandsons.HoT,he/Uineral wiU be fteld Mon-rJ atu KPAm- at ^ox Unitedfi&A 2569 Midland Ave. The£ ciyfh,as^sked that donationsbe sent to Centennial College toch ldLnHSCl!?lar?.hip in the Wchildhood education program

Visitation will take place at be-den Funeral Homes, SheppardAve., between 2 and 4 and 7andy p.m. tomorrow.D With files from Kellie Hud-son and Dottle O'Neill.