`MY HEART STILL RACES'

POLICE INVESTIGATORS NEARLY COLLIDED DURING SIMULATION

Apolice re-enactment of a fatal nighttime boat crash on an Ontario cottage country lake was stopped after a close call made investigators realize how dangerous it was, court heard Thursday.

In a vivid demonstration to the court of the danger of boating at night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer watched a video he took of a simulation to replicate conditions when Linda O'leary's speedboat hit an apparently unlit passenger vessel, killing two.

“My heart still races when I see it — phew,” OPP Constable Schone Tarrant said in court when asked if he recognized the video. “That was a little too close for comfort.”

Investigators were out on Lake Joseph, a picturesque waterway surrounded by large and expensive cottages, aboard two boats during an investigation of the Aug. 24, 2019, crash.

One was a large 16-seater, the Super Air Nautique G23 on which two passengers died, and the other was an OPP harbour craft, taking the place of the speedboat of Linda O'leary and her husband, reality television star Kevin O'leary.

To simulate events, during which the large boat was apparently unlit to allow passengers to see stars, the OPP stopped the Nautique in the same area and at the same time as when it was hit, and turned out its lights.

The OPP boat that Tarrant was on recording the simulation, drove towards the other boat, increasing speed to get it “on plane,” meaning fast enough for the boat's front to rise out of the water, court heard.

“The Super Nautique is in the water without its light on and we are approaching, up on plane, at speed,” Tarrant testified Thursday at Linda O'leary's trial for a charge of careless operation of a vessel. Officers on both boats were on the phone with each other to avoid a collision. Nonetheless, darkness made it perilous.

“We were expecting to pass on one side, however, we passed on the opposite side, so we came rather close to also colliding with that vessel in the dark,” he said.

“I think that was our final run,” he said of the police tests. “It's just too risky, too dangerous to continue.”

Richard Ruh, who was operating the Nautique at the time of the crash, was charged for not having the boat's lights on at night, and O'leary charged with careless operation of a vessel. Ruh earlier pleaded guilty but told court he did so only to save legal fees and maintains his lights were on.

O'leary is fighting her charge in court in Parry Sound, Ont.

The actual crash was captured in the distant background of video from a dockside surveillance camera on the O'learys' boathouse, beside their opulent cottage. Only the boats' lights are visible in the darkness.

The video shows the light from O'leary's boat suddenly stop and bounce back. Moments later, lights suddenly appear aboard the other boat.

An OPP video forensic analyst, Dan Murphy, told court the security video shows the collision happened at 11:30 p.m. and that the lights on the other boat are not visible before or during it.

The larger boat's lights only become visible 49 seconds after the crash, Murphy said. Murphy presented a frame-by-frame analysis of the video to the court, with 2,036 frames of video catalogued.

He showed Justice Richard Humphrey a version of the crash video with an overlay image of the same video scene during daylight, so it can be seen in context of the terrain, including islands, trees and a light on the other side of the lake.

Murphy said the OPP tried to determine the speed of the O'leary boat prior to the crash but was unable to because the specific location and trajectory of the boat could not be accurately determined.

Court earlier heard estimates that range from about 20 to 30 miles per hour.

At the time of the collision, Linda and Kevin O'leary, along with a friend, Allison Whiteside, were returning to the O'learys' cottage after a dinner party at a neighbouring lakefront cottage.

At the same time, Ruh, who also has a cottage on the lake, was driving the boat of his cottage neighbour, Irv Edwards, after a different dinner party. The 12 guests from the Edwards' dinner were stargazing and their boat free floating at the time, court heard earlier.

Two passengers at the front of the Edwards' boat — Suzana Brito, 48, of Uxbridge, Ont., and Gary Poltash, 64, of Florida — died from blunt force trauma from the collision.

There are at least six civil lawsuits also stemming from the crash.

The trial is scheduled to continue Friday and for four days next week.