A Beecher Bay man was found guilty of impaired driving causing death in a horrifying 2005 crash in Metchosin that claimed two lives.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dean Wilson found Andrew Charles, 25, guilty on two counts of impaired driving causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death, in the deaths of Doreen Joseph and Glen Charles Jr.

In the early morning of April 23, 2005, Charles’s Plymouth Colt GL slammed into a utility pole at high speed on Metchosin Road near Duke Road, killing his girlfriend, cousin and dog. The car was nearly severed in two pieces.

Wilson said he believed the testimony of Raymona Peter, who saw Charles drive away from her residence intoxicated, with Joseph and Charles Jr. in the car.

Peter had testified the trio arrived at her house already intoxicated and that Charles, “on a scale of one to 10 would have been intoxicated at a nine or 10, and that the accused continued to drink,” Wilson said.

Expert testimony estimated the speed of impact into the pole at about 70 kilometres per hour, shearing off the right side of the car. The car left the road at a bend controlled with a 30 km/h caution sign.

Testimony from two expert witnesses was credible, Wilson said, and demonstrated the position of the bodies and trauma sustained by the victims was consistent with Charles in the driver seat, Charles Jr. in the front passenger seat and Joseph in the back seat.

A witness at the scene had testified that Charles told her Charles Jr. was actually behind the wheel before the crash.

“The statement that Glen Charles was driving the vehicle is an affront to common sense,” Wilson said. “DNA analysis places the accused behind the wheel of the car. The accused statement is just not true. He is the driver of the car.”

Wilson noted witnesses and first responders at the scene didn’t notice any obvious signs that Charles was impaired, including West Shore RCMP and a former ambulance attendant. But he accepted Peter’s testimony that the group had been drinking rum and soda together and “that in her opinion, (Charles) was too drunk to drive the car.” A blood sample taken from Charles at 2 a.m. the same night showed his blood-alcohol level above the legal limit, Wilson said.

Charles remains released on bail under conditions. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Oct. 30 at the Supreme Court in Victoria.

editor@goldstreamgazette.com