Upset driver ignored passengers’ pleas before fatal crash

Ignoring pleas from his passengers to slow down, a Calgary man raced southbound on Blackfoot Trail S.E. three years ago, losing control of his car and killing one passenger and injuring the other.

Those facts were entered in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench Friday after Hersi Kabille pleaded guilty to reduced charges of dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm.

Kabille, 30, had faced six charges, including impaired driving causing the death of Yaxye Osman and impaired causing bodily harm to Ayan Ibrahim. But Justice David Gates accepted pleas to the reduced charges with the consent of Crown prosecutor Thom Forsyth.

According to a statement of agreed facts, passenger Ibrahim said the offender was upset as he drove at high speed on the early morning of July 10, 2015.

“She informed police that on more than one occasion both she and Mr. Osman had asked the defendant to slow down,” the exhibit said.

Kabille lost control of his Infiniti i35 sedan just south of railway tracks which cross Blackfoot near 26th Ave. S.E. Based on CCTV footage, the car was doing 150 km/h.

The car went airborne for 19 metres, landing on its roof in the northbound lanes. It then slid and rolled for about 60 metres before coming to rest on its roof. As the car rolled, Osman was ejected from the rear passenger seat. He remained in a coma for seven months before he died on Feb. 2, 2016.

Sentencing has been adjourned until March; Kabille remains free until then.