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.