A 29-year-old Coombs man faces six impaired driving charges related to both alcohol and cocaine use after an Alberta man helping a crash victim on a 91原创 Island highway was struck and killed.
At about 2:30 a.m. on March 2, a 36-year-old woman from Bowser lost control of her minivan and hit a power pole on Highway 19A near Qualicum Beach.
Eighty-year-old Pat Hare from Red Deer, Alta., who happened to be passing by, stopped to help.
The two drivers were outside of their vehicles when a third vehicle collided with the minivan and struck both pedestrians — killing Hare and seriously injuring the woman, said Cpl. Michael McLaughlin, spokesman for B.C. Highway Patrol.
A B.C. Highway Patrol investigation was forwarded to the B.C. Prosecution Service, and Jacob Aaron Pardiac, 29, of Coombs has now been charged with:
• Operation of a motor vehicle causing death while impaired by alcohol.
• Operation of a motor vehicle causing death while impaired by cocaine.
• Dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.
• Operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm while impaired by alcohol, section 320.14(2) of the Criminal Code.
• Operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm while impaired by cocaine.
• Dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
“B.C. Highway Patrol will do everything we can to investigate and charge people who choose to drive while impaired by alcohol and drugs,” McLaughlin said in a statement issued Friday.
Hare’s son said the family is relieved to know charges have been laid.
“He’s been really missed, especially this time of year,” said Ron Hare from his home in Calgary.
Hare said his parents spent a few months each year in Parksville. When his mother died of cancer five years ago, the family encouraged him to continue the trips, and Hare often accompanied his father to 91原创 Island.
Pat Hare had just landed in Comox shortly before he was killed. His flight out of Calgary had been cancelled and he was rebooked on a flight around midnight, Ron Hare said. “That’s what put him in that location at like 3:30 in the morning. He should have never been there.”
His father was the kind of person who would always stop to help someone in need, and Hare has been told his dad pushed the woman out of the way of the oncoming car.
“He may have saved that lady’s life. So that’s how we kind of look at it, that maybe he was there for that purpose,” Hare said.
The family’s first Christmas without their dad and grandfather was muted, missing the annual Christmas buffet at a hotel that Pat Hare would have booked for the clan.
B.C. Highway Patrol recommends using “extreme caution” when trying to help victims after a crash and considering whether you have reflective clothing, good footwear and the physical ability to help, or whether you can call 911 and have professionals help instead.
“We have seen repeated incidents this year where people trying to help after a collision end up hurt or killed, and it’s terribly sad,” McLaughlin said.
It might be safer for drivers in a minor crash to remain seat belted in their vehicle until help arrives, police said.
“If conditions are treacherous for cars, they are treacherous for pedestrians,” said police, adding that emergencies can cause stress and tunnel vision and dull attentiveness.
Police suggest getting yourself and anyone else on foot off the road and away from traffic as quickly as possible in the event of an incident on the road.
McLaughlin said the B.C. Highway Patrol applauds the sentiment of anyone trying to help after a collision, “but we all need to understand that highways are extremely dangerous places when fast-moving cars and trucks come across unexpected pedestrians.”
