Hit Snow On Side Of Road, Lost Control And Crashed, Charged!
Hi everyone!
My son was involved in a head on crash last year in Feb 2011. Basically, he was going around a slight curve in a road and there was a patch of snow or slush on the side of the road where a snow plow had pushed it earlier in the day. His passenger wheels came into contact with the snow/slush and he started to skid/slide. He doesn't remember anything after that until he recalls hearing a loud "bang and a sound of metal hitting metal". Then everything went dark in his car and he immediately felt pain to both of his legs.
As it turns out, his car had crossed the centre line and collided head on with a pickup truck in the other lane.
He was rushed to hospital with life threatening injuries, while there one of the OPP came into the hospital trauma room where he was. My son made a spontaneous uttenrance that he "was going too fast and hit the other truck". Of course the officer started writing furiously as soon as he said this. He has no memory of it, but I was there when it happened. Almost right after that, the officer told him he was being charged with Careless and asked him if he wanted to make a statement. My son said no and he left soon after that.
During the next couple of days, I was in telephone contact with the investigating officer, who was different then that one. We had conversations about my sons car as it was being impounded by the OPP. They held it for three days before telling me I could have possession of it.
The accident occurred on Friday February 25. On March 3, while he was still in Hamilton General Hosptial, the investigating officer came down there and gave him the ticket for Careless. She also asked if he wanted to make a statement and again he said no.
He had his first court appearance in April of last year, where he received disclosure from the Crown. It consisted of the officers will says as well as typed witness statements from four civillian witnesses. Two of them were the driver and passenger of the pickup, one was someone who said they saw it happen and talked to my son after it happened and says my son told him he was "going too fast" but my son only remembers one person at his car the whole time and that was a volunteer fire fighter who apparantly never gave a statement to police as it was not in there. The other statement is useless as the guy saw nothing.
The very troubling aspect of the three witness statements is that all 3 state that he was driving on the on ramp from one road to the one where the collision happened. This is impossible as he was on the same road the whole time. I know this because I knew before the accident exactly where he was going and what route he would take.
Also in the disclosure was approx. 105 pics taken by the OPP that day/night. They do show the snow on the side of the road and, judging by our view, it would be virtually impossible for him to have been on that on ramp as there is a concrete median dividing the lanes and the placement of the two vehicles is very close to that median.
He has hired a paralegla who has made 4 disclosure requests to the Crown for a copy of the TCIC report of the OPP as they had the road closed for over 7 hours after the accident to investigate. That is where the pictures came from. He has heard nothing from him as to whether he has gotten it yet but is phoning tomorrow again to ask and to set up a meeting with him as his trial is scheduled for Feb 7.
Should he not have that report disclosed to him? Why would the Crown be not willing to simply give it over to his paralegal? What should he ask his lawyer to do on Feb 7 if he does not have it by then?
I have read on here and elsewhere that Careless is one of the toughest charges to prove but how can he prove that he was, in fact, not on that ramp when 3 others say he was? We can't figure out how they are saying this in the first place?
Any help would be appreciated!