Impaired driver lost control while speeding into curve
Drunk driver Dale Cameron Neisz was travelling at almost three times the speed limit when he lost control of his car on a curve and smashed into a planter wall on Memorial Drive N.W., court heard Monday.
Neisz pleaded guilty to charges of impaired driving causing death and bodily harm in connection with the July 2, 2016, crash that killed passenger Kanaye Renfrew.
Crown prosecutor Cameron Jose, reading from a statement of agreed facts, said Neisz had a blood/alcohol concentration of nearly double the legal driving limit.
Neisz was driving almost 40 km/h faster than the speed at which his car would have been able to negotiate the curve where he lost control near 5A Street NW.
The grisly crash was captured on the dash camera of a taxi Neisz passed moments before losing control of his Ford Fusion.
At the Crown’s request, Justice Jolaine Antonio ordered the graphic video sealed. The video, which was played in court, showed the car flying past the Checker cab before striking the planter wall.
Before the video was shown, members of Kanaye Renfrew’s family, including her widower, Craig, left the courtroom.
After it struck the planter, the car was deflected back onto Memorial where it rolled before settling on its roof, striking two smaller trees and wrapping around the trunk of a larger tree.
Jose, reading from the document signed by Neisz and his lawyer, Steve Wojick, said the car was travelling at 138 km/h in a 50 km zone when it struck the planter.
“The maximum speed to successfully negotiate that curve is 102 km/ h,” he said.
The crash killed Renfrew and injured passenger Davie Matthews, who had earlier attended the Calgary Stampeders game with Neisz before drinking at two Kensington-area pubs. The three people were on their way to Chinatown to get something to eat when Neisz lost control of his car.
At Wojick’s request, Antonio ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared, pending a sentencing hearing that is likely to take place in September.
A date for sentencing submissions will be set later this week.
Neisz, who has been on what Wojick described as strict bail conditions for nearly two years, remains on release pending sentencing.