Witness followed car after seeing it strike jogger
Driver on trial for criminal negligence causing death in 2019 road accident
Fakhreddin Noureddin had been in treatment for seizures and was not medically cleared to drive, his trial heard this week, when his silver Toyota Camry abruptly pulled into the oncoming lane of Goulburn Forced Road and struck and killed a man jogging along the opposite side of the road.
Noureddin pleaded not guilty at the opening of his trial Thursday to criminal negligence causing the death of 59-year-old Hendrikas “Harry” Welton, who was out for a run on Feb. 14, 2019, when the car struck him from behind as he jogged along the road's opposite shoulder.
Welton was dragged 139 metres, according to an agreed statement of facts filed as evidence at trial, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Noureddin was 68 at the time of the fatal crash.
The trial's opening day heard from eyewitnesses who were driving southbound along the same roadway that Thursday around 5 p.m., in the waning daylight hours, when they saw Noureddin's car abruptly move from right to left, crossing the centre line and accelerating, according to one witness, before striking the man. Welton was wearing a dark track suit and jacket with reflective piping.
Road conditions were clear and, while there was no precipitation, there were large snowbanks left by a winter storm a few days earlier.
Ontario Court Justice Jean Legault heard evidence Friday from Dr. Rajendra Kale, a neurologist who had been treating Noureddin for seizures.
Noureddin was under the doctor's instructions not to drive for three months after his last appointment — which was about three months prior to the fatal collision — and was told he should only resume driving with the clearance of a physician.
Assistant Crown attorney Hart Shouldice told the judge he will hear no Crown evidence that Noureddin received any such medical clearance.
Eyewitness Ali al-Hussein testified he was driving to pick up his daughter from school and was at the crest of a hill on southbound Goulbourn Side Road when he saw ahead of him the car pull out from behind a small SUV and into the oncoming lane.
“Then the car starts accelerating, and that's when I noticed the gentleman on the left side of the road,” al-Hussein told court.
“And I thought, `If this guy keeps going he's going to hit the pedestrian.' And then it happened.”
The car “continued going and hit the guy,” al-Hussein testified. “Then all I see is some (debris) go high in the air — it happened in a matter of milliseconds — and then I don't see the guy walking.”
He stopped his car where the SUV had pulled over on the roadside and asked if the panicked driver had a cellphone to call 911.
The silver Camry had paused at a stop sign, and, when al-Hussein looked up, “The car disappeared from our view,” he said.
“I expected at the stop sign he might stop there, but he disappeared, so I told the (SUV driver), `I'm gonna follow him.'”
He drove after Noureddin and started honking his horn as he caught up to the car.
He grew agitated at one point under cross-examination from Noureddin's defence lawyer, Joseph Addelman, on Thursday as he pressed al-Hussein on precise details of his recollection.
He testified he was on top of the hill “with a clear view of everything below” as it happened and did not initially see the pedestrian until the car's sudden movement caught his attention.
He thought the car was “speeding,” but told Addelman he did not know what speed it was travelling.
After losing sight of the Camry in a roundabout at Badgeley Road, al-Hussein returned to the scene. He saw a crowd forming a short distance from the stop sign.
“I wish I didn't look,” he solemnly told court.
As Shouldice told court in the Crown's opening address, bystanders could not immediately locate the victim, and, when they did, “Despite their willingness to help and two nurses being on the scene, his injuries were so severe that no resuscitation efforts were performed.”
Witnesses, including al-Hussein, then saw Noureddin's blood-spattered car return as it drove slowly past and came to a stop near the initial scene of impact, where more people had gathered, but al-Hussein told court he had “no interaction” with Noureddin.
Noureddin's vehicle was “significantly damaged” on the front end and windshield, primarily on the passenger side.
According to the Crown's case, multiple witnesses saw blood spattered along the front, top and rear of the car, and those who did speak to Noureddin when he returned to the scene said he was asking them what had happened. He denied striking anybody with his car.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Noureddin's vehicle was examined by an Ottawa police mechanic, who found it to be “mechanically sound” with no apparent issues that would have contributed to the collision.
Noureddin was arrested and charged and the following day gave a statement to a detective that his lawyer agreed was “free and voluntary.”
His trial continues.