Driver admits being drunk at time of fatal head-on crash

One man killed and his wife injured in Easter 2016 collision on Glenmore Trail

Calgarian Alexander Shaun Soop had triple the legal amount of alcohol in his blood when he caused a fatal crash on Glenmore Trail, court heard Tuesday.

Soop pleaded guilty to charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing injury in the crash on Easter weekend in 2016, which killed Roger Holmes and injured the victim’s wife.

Reading from a statement of agreed facts, Crown prosecutor Elaine Ahn told court Soop was driving a Ram pickup westbound on the busy thoroughfare when he clipped another car.

The force of the collision caused Soop to lose control and drive across the median into the eastbound lanes, where the Holmes couple were travelling in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

“As a result of the collision, Roger Holmes was ejected,” Ahn said.

Ahn said Soop collided head-on with the Jeep and a second vehicle travelling eastbound.

She told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Earl Wilson that Holmes suffered multiple blunt-trauma injuries, “with bruising, scrapes and lacerations of the head, torso and extremities.”

Jayne Holmes’s injuries included a punctured lung, left arm fracture, multiple rib fractures, two broken femurs, two dislocated knees, a broken lower leg and ankle, kidney and liver lacerations, and several other internal injuries, Ahn said.

She was hospitalized for four months.

The prosecutor said Soop was travelling at 30 km/h over the posted 80 km/h speed limit just before the collision, which occurred at 4:39 p.m. on March 27, 2016, between Crowchild Trail and 37th Street S.W.

Soop’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the collision was determined to be 247 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood. The legal driving limit is 80 mg.

Ahn told Wilson that Soop has a prior criminal record.

At the request of defence lawyer Sean Fagan, Wilson ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared on behalf of his client.

Fagan also asked for a Gladue report on Soop’s Indigenous background.

Sentencing submissions will be made once the reports are completed.