Pubdate: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2006 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Florence Loyie Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving) STONED DRIVER FOUND GUILTY Man High On Marijuana, Prescription Drugs Caused Fatal Crash EDMONTON - An Edmonton man was found guilty Tuesday of being high when he was involved in a deadly crash near Sherwood Park in 2003 that killed two people and injured two others. James McIlwrick, 33, who remains out on bail until his sentencing June 19, was charged with two counts of impaired driving causing death and two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm after the Nov. 23 head-on crash on Highway 21, just south of the Highway 16 overpass. Killed in the 7:30 a.m. collision were Tammy Engelking, 27, a chemical technologist from Sherwood Park, and one of her three passengers, Henry Yao, 40, also of Sherwood Park. The other passengers, Kork Sin Liew and Massoud Teymouri were both hospitalized; Liew with a broken sternum and Teymouri with four broken ribs. The four were carpooling to their jobs at Shell Canada near Fort Saskatchewan. During an earlier trial, Crown prosecutor Gregory Marchant alleged that at the time of the collision, Mcllwrick, who was described as a "chronic" marijuana user who smoked several joints a day, was too high to operate his Dodge Ram pickup truck. According to a 16-page written judgement by Provincial Court Judge L. Burgess, McIlwrick first told a paramedic at the accident scene he had smoked a joint about two hours earlier. At the hospital, he told a nurse he had smoked a "50/50" -- half-marijuana and half-tobacco joint. Court also heard Mcllwrick was taking three prescription drugs at the time: ativan, zyprexa and zithromax. "It is the Crown's position that the defendant's ability to operate a motor vehicle was also impaired by the consumption of those prescription drugs," Burgess said. According to two eyewitnesses, Mcllwrick, who was on his way to work in Sherwood Park, had turned right to exit off Highway 16 onto Highway 21. As he entered Highway 21 southbound, McIlwrick crossed the centre lane into northbound traffic and collided head-on with Engelking's SUV. In his judgement released Wednesday, Burgess said he could find no other reason for the collision other than McIlwrick's impairment by prescription drugs and marijuana. McIlwrick refused to comment as he left court. Engelking's parents, John and Margaret Rudicki, who attended Sherwood Park Provincial Court to hear the judgement, were relieved with the ruling. "I suppose, at one point, I was afraid he was going to get off because there's no set impairment for marijuana," Margaret told Global News. Marchant said impairment by drugs is much more difficult to prove than impairment by alcohol. "Hopefully, the message will get out that impairment by drugs is the same, frankly, in terms of law as impairment by alcohol," Marchant said. John Rudicki said the family will now wait to see what McIlwrick's sentence will be. "For a parent losing a child, it's never enough," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom