Motorist maintains he didn’t know he had seriously injured cyclist

Volunteer firefighter Jeremy Janzen testified he was driving to work at about 7:30 a.m. on July 26, 2016, along a rural road in Niagara-on-the-Lake when he heard a loud bang.

He thought perhaps a part from his almost 30-year-old pickup truck had fallen off. Or, maybe he had struck a turtle, or a mail box or an object sticking out in the roadway.

He didn’t stop.

When he arrived at work, he checked his vehicle and realized the truck had sustained significant damage to its front end.

Soon after, his firefighter page went off. Firefighters were being called to the same road he had just been on in response to a critically injured cyclist in a ditch.

It was then Janzen realized the loud noise he had heard must have been the sound of his truck striking a body.

He returned to the scene on Carlton Street near Townline Road and was arrested later that day.

The cyclist, a 55-year-old St. Catharines man, had been training for an upcoming triathlon. He is now confined to a wheelchair.

Janzen, a resident of Niagaraon-the-Lake, was charged with failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm.

He had pleaded not guilty. Final submissions in the case were held Thursday in Superior Court of Justice in St. Catharines following a nine-day trial.

His lawyer concedes his client did cause the collision but maintains Janzen cannot be found guilty of a criminal offence because he didn’t know he had struck a person.

“The Crown had to prove Mr. Janzen knew he struck (the victim) and that he tried to escape criminal or civil liability,” V.J. Singh told Judge Meredith Donohue.

“The Crown has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Assistant Crown attorney Greg Smith disagreed, and maintains Janzen knew full well he’d struck the cyclist and left him clinging to life in a ditch.

“The accused knew he hit a person,” he said. “He fled the scene, he panicked. He knew he hit somebody.”

The victim, court was told, lay in the ditch for an hour before he was discovered by a farmer.

The judge will deliver her judgment May 10.