Police expert testifies keys were removed from BMW ignition, leading to fatal crash

Regina Police Service Const. Nolan Bespalko spent the better part of two days on the stand at Regina’s Court of Queen’s Bench this week.

He’s testifying in the trial of a youth charged with one count each of dangerous driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death, and two counts each of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Those charges were laid after a mid-afternoon crash on March 13, 2015 that left Saeed Warraich, 49, dead. Bespalko was qualified as an expert in accident and collision reconstruction and gave his opinion as to what happened that day.

The BMW, said to be driven by the youth — who was 16 years old at the time and cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act — travelled out of its southeast-bound lane of the Ring Road, into the ditch and up into northwest-bound traffic.

That path into oncoming traffic, photos from the scene show, was in an entirely straight line.

Warraich, who was in a Pontiac Pursuit with one other person, was struck by the BMW and pronounced dead shortly after.

Much of the testimony throughout the week focused on whether or not the keys had been removed from the BMW before the accident, causing the steering wheel to lock.

Bespalko told the court he found no evidence of mechanical or road failure in the BMW and concluded the car’s steering wheel locked as a result of the keys being entirely removed from the ignition.

More, the airbags in the BMW did not deploy, giving Bespalko further reason to believe there was no power available to the car when the collision occurred.

Defence lawyer Sharon Fox, in her cross examination, made the point to Bespalko that his tests did not include finding out what happens when someone removes the key from the ignition and then tries putting it back in while the car is still in motion.

Earlier in the week, one of the passengers in the BMW testified the driver began accelerating and weaving among cars eastbound of Ring Road before, without explanation, turning off the ignition.

That witness said the driver tried to engage the clutch and restart the engine but instead the steering locked and the car began heading into the median between the two sets of lanes.

The defence suggested there could have been no power in the car due to troubles with the battery; something the police could have tested but did not in this instance.

At one point, the defence questioned the independence of Bespalko’s testimony.

“Have you ever heard of tunnel vision?” she asked. Bespalko said he had. The trial was adjourned until next Thursday.