Woman suffered severe brain injury when car struck her, trial told

Admissions of fact reveals she was left paralyzed on her left side. She has hydrocephalus, cranial nerve palsy, swallowing difficulties and severe cognitive impairment.

A Victoria woman whose sister was struck and killed by a vehicle on Central Saanich Road three and a half years ago has never recovered from the injuries she sustained in the same collision, B.C. Supreme Court heard Thursday.

That information was revealed in admissions of fact read into the court record at Anthony Thomas’s judge-alone trial.

Thomas has pleaded not guilty to impaired driving and dangerous driving causing the death of Kim Ward on Aug. 27, 2018 and impaired driving and dangerous driving causing bodily harm to her sister, Tracy Ward.

Kim Ward, 51, was a Victoria massage therapist who had worked with some of Canada’s top athletes at two Olympic Games. The sisters were visiting their mother that night.

The admissions state that Tracy Ward suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, including a brain stem injury, which has left her paralyzed on her left side.

She has hydrocephalus, cranial nerve palsy, swallowing difficulties and severe global cognitive impairment.

The weather that day was clear, dry and warm, the road was straight and in good repair, and the Jeep that crashed into the women had no damage or defects that contributed to the fatal collision, the admissions say.

The admissions also reveal that at 7:45 p.m. Agatha Siah, a woman at the scene of the crash, gave Central Saanich police Sgt. Paul Brailey a baggie containing two pills.

“All of these items were in the accused’s possession, and on his person at the scene moments after the collision,” the admissions say. “These pills were in fact Flubromazolam, a type of benzodiazepine not currently marketed in Canada. It is not a knock off of Xanax or any other kind of benzodiazepine currently marked in Canada. It is considered extremely potent.”

Called as an expert witness to give evidence about his analysis of the fatal collision, retired Saanich police Sgt. Alan Gurzinski testified that he arrived at the scene in the early to mid-evening, about an hour after the crash.

As it got darker, lights were provided by the Central Saanich fire department.

Gurzinski, assisted by forensic identification officers Const. Mark Prill and Const Brad Walsh, photographed and recorded evidence at the scene to determine what happened. They measured tire marks and scuff marks on the road, and the distance the women were thrown. Kim and Tracy were quite close together on the grassy boulevard when they were struck, he said.

Several weeks after the crash, Gurzinski retrieved crash data from the Jeep that showed it was travelling just below

50 miles per hour — 80 km/h — just before the collision.

“Based on my calculations and based on the data in the crash data retrieval report, it’s my belief the vehicle was travelling at 77 or 78 km/h at the time it hit Tracy and Kim,” Gurzinski said.

He concluded that the Jeep was initially travelling south in the southbound lane. At some point, it started driving to the left, over the centre line and into the northbound lane.

At some point, very close to the driveway of a mobile home park, it began to drive onto the boulevard where it struck Tracy and Kim and their dog, Gurzinski said.

The weather and road conditions were good at the time and the mileage on the Jeep was negligible at 476 kilometres, he noted.

“The only explanation is that there was driver error involved in this collision,” said Gurzinski.