HIT AND RUN DRIVER IS INNOCENT

Motorists who cause injuries to persons and leave the scene without assisting the person they hit are despicable people. Not much can be said in favor of drivers who damage other cars while driving and drive away from the scene without stopping to discuss the accident with the driver of the other car.  However, there are exceptions and here are two of them.  

Years ago, a motorist was tailgating me. The motorist suddenly braked ahead of me.   The motorist behind me was so close to me. he didn’t get a chance to brake so he slammed  into the rear of my car.

My car was built like a stone shit house so I didn’t get any damage to it but the tailgater’s car was built like a child’s wooden playhouse. His car suffered some considerable damage at the front of his car.

I stopped my car and so did he. He then walked to my car and I rolled down my car’s driver’s window an inch to talk to him. He spoke first.

“’I’M GOING TO KILL YOU ASSHOLE. GET OUT OF THE CAR!”  

This jerk was a bit bigger than I was so I decided that common sense is obviously better that valor since he may have had a knife in his ;pocket so I simply drove off leaving him with a car that had to be towed to a repair shop.

Several days later, I received a visit from two members of Toronto’s finest at my home.  They listen to my explanation as to why I left the scene of the accident in such a hurry. They were sympathetic but they said they still had to charge me with the crime of fail to remain which is a serious crime in Canada and probably elsewhere also. 

When the day of my trial came, the other driver didn’t show up. The police went to his place of work and brought him t0 the court house. Before we went into the court room, I told him that I had secretly recorded him threatening me with death. I lied naturally but it worked because he didn’t want to deny it in the witness box and then have to hear the recording and then go to jail for lying under oath.

He admitted that he threatened to kill me but he said that he didn’t mean what he said.               

The judge looked at the Crown (prosecutor) and said, “If the witness had said that to me when I was in my car, I would have driven away from him just as the defendant did. This case is dismissed.

As we were leaving the court house, I said to him sarcastically,  “I guess you didn’t have to pay much to have your kiddy-car fixed the way it was before you banged into the rear of my car since your kiddy car was already a piece of junk.”

Did he threaten me with death again?  No he didn’t but if he did, I was not afraid of a jerk who threatens me with death unless of course he has a knife pointed at me.

Now I will tell you of a very interesting hit and run case that took place in the Province of Quebec in Canada. 

On Aug. 7^th, 2018, , Brian Doyle was reading through the news on his cellphone when he had what he would later call a “surreal experience.” In an article, he recognized himself and a co-worker in the grainy photos of the suspects. He couldn’t believe it. To this day, he maintains he didn’t know he was a wanted man until that very moment.

In shock, Doyle, 37, went directly to a police station in St-Laurent, where he voluntarily provided a three-hour statement. Soon after, he was charged with two counts: failing to stop at the scene of an accident and dangerous driving, both with the added weight of causing bodily harm.

On March 1^st, he was acquitted in a lengthy decision that called what transpired that night an “unspeakable tragedy” and its aftermath “heartbreaking in every sense of the word.”

The 41-page judgment explores the notion of what’s considered an accident in the context of a hit and run, and to what extent self-defence factors into one’s decision-making during a hostile situation.

To Doyle, the ruling came as a relief after consistently claiming his innocence and insisting he fled the scene not knowing he had injured anyone. To Zachary Zelinsky, 31, and his father, it’s another painful outcome following two already difficult years.

I will tell you how they got into that situation.

In the early hours of June 24, 2017, Zachary Zelinsky lay in a pool of his own blood, in the middle of a St-Laurent Blvd. parking lot, for 12 minutes. A passerby who finally noticed him called for help.

He would be kept in a medically-induced coma for weeks, undergo several surgeries for skull fractures, an emergency craniotomy and a tracheotomy.

The injuries have left him with complete and retrograde amnesia, the judgment says. Cruelly, he does not remember what happened that night, but it forever changed his life.

Based on Doyle’s version of events, several aspects of which the judge rejected, and the security camera footage that captured the entirety of what took place in the parking lot, the court established the following at trial.

That night, Doyle and a friend met Zelinsky at the Cleopatra strip club on St-Laurent Blvd. Zelinsky was visiting Montreal from Florida. At one point, they decided to leave the club and head to the nearby Cabaret Kingdom, about a minute away, where they bought a 40-ounce bottle of whisky for $420. Doyle paid for the bulk of it with money he won at a video-poker machine.

According to security footage, around 1:09 a.m. the three men made their way to Doyle’s car in the parking lot. His co-worker had snuck the bottle of whisky out of the club by hiding it in his pants. Zelinsky then stashed it in the back seat. They seemed in good spirits.

They then returned to the Cleopatra club, where they had first met. Around 2 a.m., Doyle and his co-worker returned to the car. Zelinsky was nowhere to be seen.

Over the course of the night, the judgment says, Zelinsky had become “drunk, belligerent, aggressive and unpredictable.”

Doyle’s co-worker was also drinking heavily. Doyle, for his part, told the judge he drank two Corona beers and a glass of whisky earlier in the night, but had stopped drinking to sober up before driving. The pair started distancing themselves from Zelinsky when he became overbearing.

As a result of the hit and run, Zachary Zelinsky was kept in a medically-induced coma for weeks, underwent several surgeries for skull fractures, a craniotomy and a tracheotomy. FACEBOOK.

When Doyle began driving away in the parking lot, Zelinsky appeared, his shirt now off and draped over his shoulder, and approached the moving car.

He blocked its passage and made his way to Doyle’s window. The surveillance footage capturing that moment doesn’t have audio; it’s impossible to know what was being said

According to security footage, around 1:09 a.m. the three men made their way to Doyle’s car in the parking lot. His co-worker had snuck the bottle of whisky out of the club by hiding it in his pants. Zelinsky then stashed it in the back seat. They seemed in good spirits.

They then returned to the Cleopatra club, where they had first met. Around 2 a.m., Doyle and his co-worker returned to the car. Zelinsky was nowhere to be seen.

Over the course of the night, the judgment says, Zelinsky had become “drunk, belligerent, aggressive and unpredictable.”

Doyle’s co-worker was also drinking heavily. Doyle, for his part, told the judge he drank two Corona beers and a glass of whisky earlier in the night, but had stopped drinking to sober up before driving. The pair started distancing themselves from Zelinsky when he became overbearing.

As a result of the hit and run, Zachary Zelinsky was kept in a medically-induced coma for weeks, underwent several surgeries for skull fractures, a craniotomy and a tracheotomy.

When Doyle began driving away in the parking lot, Zelinsky appeared, his shirt now off and draped over his shoulder, and approached the moving car.

He blocked its passage and made his way to Doyle’s window. The surveillance footage capturing that moment doesn’t have audio; it’s impossible to know what was being said.

Doyle testified Zelinsky was confrontational and he was scared for his life.

Zelinsky backed away from the car for a matter of seconds, then opened the rear driver’s-side door. At the same time, Doyle stepped on the gas. Zelinsky then gripped onto the door frame, took two steps and jumped onto the trunk.

Within two seconds, he rolled off and violently struck his head against the pavement. Doyle drove off and never called emergency services. He’s always maintained he wasn’t aware Zelinsky jumped on the trunk or that he hit the ground.

In his decision, Quebec Court Judge Dennis Galiatsatos ruled the case comes down to a “rather basic question” that “spawns a plethora of complex legal issues”: “What is a driver expected to do when an unwanted intruder attempts to enter his vehicle against his will?”

In the end, Galiatsatos concluded Doyle was not at fault in the situation, ruling he “reacted in the same way most citizens would in the same circumstances.”

“Allowing an unwanted hostile intruder in the confined space of a car will always be a dangerous recipe for disaster,” he wrote. “The accused could not possibly have let him in the car and hoped for the best. The law certainly does not impose such a leap of faith on a citizen.”

The only “reasonable choice” Doyle had to avoid the confrontation in that situation was to drive away, the judge ruled. He could not have predicted Zelinsky would jump on his car.Zelinsky’s intervening act was the sole cause of his subsequent injuries.”

Doyle says the experience of being charged with such a serious crime has been haunting. He still gets anxiety when he thinks of that night and can’t believe what it led to.

He was confident in his chances at trial but couldn’t help fear the worst. He felt a deep rush of relief when declared not guilty, and is looking forward to putting the case behind him.

“It’s very sad what happened, it’s tragic,” he told the Montreal Gazette. “But at the end of the day, my intentions were not to hurt anybody,” he said. “I did not see Zach jump on my car and fall off. Honestly, I wish I did because I would have helped him. But I didn’t see it.”

The Zelinskys, for their part, dispute the judge’s conclusions and the interpretation of Zachary’s behaviour.

Though he can’t remember specifics because of the amnesia, Zelinsky said he does recall his usual demeanour and how he goes about things. The description of that night, he said, “just doesn’t make any sense.”

The night was life-altering in the worst way for him. He says he went from saving up money to buy a house to barely getting by.

“There’s really no justice here,” his father, Mark Zelinsky, said. In his father’s mind, it’s clear: someone left the scene of a person who was injured, and they should be held responsible for it. “It’s disappointing to see that’s not the case, he said. “We have to deal with what’s been given to us the best we can,” he added, “but it ain’t right.”

But the decision of the court was right. An innocent driver has to live with guilt that he doesn’t deserve because of the actions of a foolish man whose death was brought to him  as a direct result of his own stupid actions.