Image Credit: Contributed/Trevor Rockliffe
March 13, 2015 - 10:26 AM
KAMLOOPS - A man whose speedboat crashed on a B.C. lake cradled the head of a dying houseboat operator and cried as he waited for help to arrive, a witness has testified.
Lubomir Vitanov, who was a passenger on the houseboat on July 3, 2010, said he saw Leon Reinbrecht holding the victim's head after the collision.
“Leon had his head down," Vitanov said.
"I saw a few tears drop. He said, ‘Somebody better come because this man doesn’t have long to live.’”
Reinbrecht is charged with one count each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The Crown alleges he was driving his speedboat erratically prior to the head-on crash that killed Ken Brown.
Vitanov told court he was in the houseboat’s washroom at the time of the collision.
He said he had earlier shared some marijuana with his friend, while Brown had one drink before getting on the water, but declined a second drink on the boat.
Vitanov said that after the crash, a man he identified as Reinbrecht’s son exclaimed “What just happened?” while a woman on the board was crying.
He testified there were "quite a few" empty and full beer bottles all over the speedboat.
Earlier witnesses have said a speedboat on the lake was doing doughnuts and speeding in the minutes before the crash.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015