Gone But Not Forgotten: Schuylkill Canal Crash Victims Memorialized

On a brilliant blue October morning along the Schuylkill River Canal Friday, there was little evidence of tragedy.

Gone were the tire marks that had scarred the gravel and grass earlier in the week.

The water of the canal moved slowly and tranquilly, littered with orange leaves. A fisherman prodded beneath the rail bridge.

Along the canal banks, just a few short feet from the water, a small memorial honored the site where two locals in their mid-twenties died just before midnight on Monday night.

Two middle-aged women stood looking at the memorial. One asked, ”why isn’t there a guard rail?”

The Schuylkill Canal at Lock 60 on Friday, near where the incident occurred.

Eyewitnesses from homes across the river described a scene of horror Monday night to which they were helpless spectators.

They heard a loud crash, and then a man screaming, sounding “very scared,” calling for help.

The driver of the car, 21, had backed out of a small parking area about a 100 yards before the main lot at the end of the Towpath Road leading to Lock 60.

He then crossed over the paved canal roadway and onto the very narrow grass embankment, before, somehow, the car flipped over into the canal.

The driver and one other passenger escaped. Lauren Ann Magargal, 25, and Clinton Berger, 29, drowned.

It’s not clear what caused the accident. There are few lights on that portion of the Towpath Road, and it could’ve been hard for the driver to see where he was going. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said that they were investigating whether or not the actions of the driver were criminal.

The memorial cross in the grass embankment bears the names of the victims on the horizontal beam. On the vertical beam it reads “R.I.P. Gone but not Forgotten.”