Brett Iler was not impaired or distracted by his cellphone, there were no mechanical issues and the weather was sunny and the roads were dry when he was involved with a deadly crash in late May 2022.
Brett Iler was not impaired or distracted by his cellphone, there were no mechanical issues and the weather was sunny and the roads were dry when he was involved with a deadly crash in late May 2022.
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This was part of the evidence heard Thursday during the second day of the 29-year-old Windsor man’s trial at Provincial Offenses Court near Blenheim. Iler has pleaded not guilty to two counts of careless driving causing death and three counts of careless driving causing injury in the May 27, 2022, crash that killed Jamiee Doyle, 28, and Nigel Sedge, 29.
The crash occurred during a Retrofest cruise in which hundreds of classic cars were traveling west on Queen’s Line (formerly Highway 2). Four vehicles collided on a bend near Dillon Road.
Chatham-Kent police officer Jason Herder, who was a constable with the traffic management unit at the time of the crash, was called as an expert witness for his knowledge and training in conducting accident reconstructions.
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Herder’s detailed collision reconstruction report determined Iler was not impaired by alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash, nor was he on his cellphone. An inspection also showed there was nothing mechanical that contributed to the crash, which occurred during sunny weather on a dry roadway.
Herder attributed Iler’s actions to a “lack of attention” while driving.
The officer’s dissection of the crash scene, which included examining skid marks and gouges in the roadway, determined the 2013 Ford Escape Iler was driving east on Queen’s Line veered 1.2 meters into the westbound lane on the bend in the road near Dillon Road, striking a 1987 Chevy pickup being driven by Wesley Hooker, whose six-year-old daughter was a passenger.
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Herder said the impact of the crash between the SUV and the pickup truck caused the front driver’s side tire of Iler’s vehicle to go flat “instantly.” This resulted in the Ford Escape rotating counter-clockwise and moving further into the westbound lane where it struck a 1950 Buick sedan, occupied by Sedge and Doyle, who were pronounced dead at the scene.
The other three passengers in the Buick sedan were injured and had to be extricated from the vehicle.
Herder said Sedge, who was driving the Buick, tried to make an evasive maneuver by turning right just before the vehicle was struck by Iler’s SUV.
The officer said unfortunately the Buick was “past the point of no escape. There’s nothing you can do to prevent the collision from occurring.”
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Herder’s reconstruction of the crash determined Iler’s vehicle hit the driver’s side front hood of the Buick and went onto the roof before the SUV was launched into the air.
Herder said one witness reported seeing the Ford Escape reach about six meters (20 feet) in the air before it came to a stop after flipping on the passenger side of the vehicle.
Sgt. Josh Flikweert, who was the lead investigator, testified an officer pointed Iler out to him when he arrived on the scene. He said Iler indicated he was the driver of the Ford Escape.
Flikweert said he took Iler to the police department’s traffic office about 300 meters away on Dillon Road to conduct a field sobriety test.
He noted Iler “performed well” on the test and “didn’t provide any reasonable grounds to believe he was impaired by alcohol or drugs.”
The trial continues Friday.
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