Driving prohibition upheld for man who crashed pickup into power pole

A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has upheld a Prince George RCMP officer's decision to issued a 24-hour driving prohibition to a local man who denied being behind the wheel of a pickup truck that had been crashed into a hydro pole.

In a reasons for decision, Justice James Williams said the officer, Cst. Nicholas Layton, was called to the scene shortly after 3 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2015 where he found the vehicle in a northbound ditch alongside Chief Lake Road at Eena Lake Road.

It was a short distance past a hydro pole that had been broken off and it appeared the truck box on the passenger side had struck the pole. The road's surface was bare and clear and visibility was good and a tow truck was on the scene when Layton arrived.

But there was no one inside the cab and when Layton took a closer look, he noted a strong odour of burnt marijuana.

Among his next moves was to make two phone calls to a number believed to be for the truck's owner which went to voicemail.

Then he saw what turned out to be Jeremy Tyler Ostrowidzki walk onto the scene from the north and get into the passenger side of the tow truck.

When Layton questioned him, Ostrowidzki he had been left in the woods by three other males, but did not provide any further details about who they were and then said he was walking along the road when he recognized the truck as his own and claimed it had been "likely stolen."

But Layton noticed strong odours of liquor and marijuana on Ostrowidzki. Layton also noticed Ostrowidzki had no shoe on his left foot and said his left foot and left hand were frozen numb.

As well, Layton noticed Ostrowidzki has a phone in his pocket and it was ringing.

And the the tow truck driver handed over a set of keys to Layton that he said Ostrowidzki had dropped on his tow truck.

As a result, Layton issued the prohibition to Ostrowidzki, who subsequently filed an appeal.

Williams noted that in such cases, it's up to the petitioner to establish that the officer's decision fell short of the standard for reasonableness and given the facts presented to him, Ostrowidzki failed to do so.

"Cumulatively, the evidence known to the officer at the time provided an adequate basis to enable him to draw the conclusion he did: that the petitioner had been consuming cannabis such that his ability to operate a motor vehicle was affected," Williams said in the decision, issued March 30.

Williams did not say why the prohibition was appealed but according to Ostrowidzki's petition to the court, he received a letter from the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles two months after the incident saying the agency intended to prohibit him from driving for four months.

Reached Wednesday, B.C. Hydro spokesman Bob Gammer said there was a power outage as a result of the crash and about 315 customers were without power for two-and-a-half hours. And one customer was without power until about 2 p.m. as a crew replaced two poles.

All of the cost to Hydro from the incident has since been recovered from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, Gammer also said.