A Calgary man involved in a deadly Westside crash begins a four-day trial in Kelowna today.
Michael John Bell, 56, is in B.C. Supreme Court on charges of criminal negligence causing death and injury from street racing, and dangerous driving.
The fatal crash happened on Boucherie Road as two men drove in separate cars in April 2009. RCMP say Bell was behind the wheel of a Porsche convertible sports car racing his friend in a BMW SUV at lunch hour Good Friday.
Both men were driving over the posted limit of 60 km/h, witnesses told police. The four-door BMW, containing two men and two women, lost control near Pritchard Drive.
The 2009 BMW spun off the road and barrel-rolled several times before coming to rest upside-down in a farmer's field, witnesses said. The driver, a 47-year-old Alberta man, died in the car.
All four occupants wore seatbelts. Emergency crews used hydraulic shears to extricate the 50-year-old woman riding in the front seat. The woman and man in the back seat, ages 41 and 54 respectively, crawled out through a broken window.
All three passengers were later released from Kelowna General Hospital.