Man found guilty of impaired driving head-on crash on Trans-Canada Highway
By Medicine Hat News on May 22, 2018.
A Cypress County man was found guilty Monday on all charges stemming from driving drunk the wrong way down the Trans-Canada Highway in 2015, causing a head-on collision that severely injured multiple people. Following a trial spread out over months since last November, Judge Eric Brooks ruled that 57-year-old Curtis Beisel is guilty of four counts each of impaired driving causing bodily harm, exceeding .08 causing bodily harm, and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. A pre-sentencing report was requested by defence counsel, with sentencing adjourned until August 8. A judicial stay was issued on the impaired charges so Beisel will be sentenced on the other charges alone. In his decision, Brooks stated the Beisel drove at least 1.06 kilometres for 30 to 40 seconds the wrong way down the Trans-Canada on the evening of Dec. 17, 2015. He missed several signs that indicated he was going the wrong direction, and despite another oncoming vehicle honking at him as a warning. Brooks accepted the Crown’s evidence and testimony from the RCMP toxicology expert that Beisel’s blood-alcohol level was 173 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. As well, Brooks rejected the defence’s arguments that the expert’s method for calculating this were flawed. The judge found there was no evidence to support bolus drinking – consuming a large quantity of alcohol in a short amount of time – and Beisel had a “normal drinking pattern.” Brooks also found that Beisel’s behaviour and comments testified to by an RCMP officer following the collision showed he was never aware that he had been driving the wrong way. 9-8
