By Sheldon Spackman

Not guilty pleas in fatal highway crash near Red Deer

Sep 17, 2018 | 2:05 PM

A woman charged with impaired driving in a fatal crash west of Red Deer last year entered not guilty pleas in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday.

Trial for Bobbi Crotty got underway with the 24-year-old being arraigned on four of the eight counts against her. She pleaded not guilty to charges of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death and three of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm in the August 5, 2017 incident.

That’s when RCMP were dispatched to a three-vehicle crash along Highway 11A near Range Road 281 shortly after 11:30 p.m. which claimed the life of a 36-year-old woman and injured multiple others.

During witness testimony on Monday, Joan Rogers of Sylvan Lake said she saw the crash take place in front of her while on her way home from Ponoka. Rogers testified that her westbound vehicle was stopped behind a red vehicle at a red light on Highway 11A just west of Red Deer shortly before the crash.

Once the light turned green, she claims a westbound vehicle approaching the intersection from behind passed her on the left hand-side and was then driving side-by-side and at the same speed as the red vehicle in front of her.

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Rogers told court neither of the vehicles in front of her adjusted their speed to allow the vehicle in the passing lane to merge back over into the right lane with the passing lane coming to an end.

Soon after, she testified an eastbound vehicle emerged over a hill in the road and struck the westbound vehicle that was passing.

A second witness called to the stand on Monday was Cpl. Brandon Smith of the Blackfalds RCMP detachment. Smith said he was the third RCMP officer to arrive on scene.

Cpl. Smith testified “there was wreckage all over the place” and EMS were already tending to the injured when he arrived.

Smith told court he spoke with Crotty at the scene and she identified herself as the driver of the passing vehicle.

He also testified that, in his opinion, Crotty smelled strongly of alcohol and admitted to having “two or three” drinks. This led Smith to administer a roadside breathalyzer test on Crotty, which he said had an insufficient reading on the first try, so a second breathalyzer test was done and resulted in a fail.

Smith said he spent roughly three hours with Crotty following the crash, including during her ambulance ride to Red Deer, and about two hours at the hospital next to her bed.

Expert testimony from an RCMP Forensic Collision Reconstructionist is scheduled to take place Monday afternoon with the trial anticipated to continue on Tuesday.