Fatal Whistler crash driver high on LSD
Driver told police he took two doses of LSD hours before crash, documents show
CBC News
Posted: Feb 17, 2012 6:09 PM PT
Last Updated: Feb 17, 2012 9:41 PM PT
The body of the 54-year-old limousine driver was not removed from the burned wreckage until the day following the Jan. 28 collision. (CBC)
The driver of a pickup truck involved in a deadly head-on collision with a limousine outside Whistler last month was allegedly drunk and claimed to be high on LSD at the time of the crash, CBC News has learned.
According to court documents, the driver of the truck told police he took a couple of “sheets,” or doses, of LSD on the night of Jan. 28, a few hours before he crossed the centre line of the Sea-to-Sky Highway and hit a limousine, which burst into flames.
The driver of the limo, Shafiqur Rahman, died at the scene.
The pickup driver, a 19-year-old from Calgary, was not seriously injured and was seen walking along the middle of the highway after the collision. A passing driver took him back to the accident site and called police.
The truck driver, who has not been charged, later told police he took the drugs and remembers going to a pizza restaurant but recalls nothing else after that until he was in hospital following the collision.
Rahman's boss and friend, Harman Sanghera, said he was disturbed to learn of the driver’s alleged condition when contacted by CBC News Friday.
"If that's the case, this would have been a 100-per-cent preventable accident," Sanghera said.
Rahman was married and the father of two boys.
Friends of the suspect told investigators he had also consumed between 10 and 15 cans of beer in the hours before the crash, the documents said.
The documents also reveal that after the collision, the suspect allegedly kept saying the truck had explosives on board, which turned out not to be true, but which police had to take seriously at the time.
Police say they are considering recommending charges of impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death.
With files from the CBC's Jason ProctorShare Tools
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