Crown calls man accused of driving 196 km/h while impaired ‘Morally bankrupt’

Closing arguments were heard inside a Barrie, Ont. courtroom in the trial of a Wasaga Beach man accused of driving nearly four times the legal limit.

Closing arguments were heard inside a Barrie, Ont. courtroom Wednesday in the trial of a Wasaga Beach man accused of driving nearly four times the legal limit at about 200 kilometres an hour prior to the deadly crash three years ago in Wasaga Beach.

Jefferson Dance, 47, is on trial charged with dangerous and impaired driving causing the death of Jim Lynne, 62, whom the court heard was delivering pizzas at the time his Nissan Juke was crashed into from behind by a grey Tesla Model Y along Mosley Street just before midnight April 9, 2022.

The Crown in delivering its closing arguments called Dance “morally bankrupt” for getting behind the wheel with about four times the legal limit of alcohol in his system then driving his Tesla up to 196 km/h before crashing into the car driven by Lynne. The crash killed Lynne instantly, the court heard.

Crown Attorney Indy Kandola told the court Dance turned Lynne’s Nissan Juke “into a soda can, crushing it.”

The court was shown surveillance video inside a nearby bar where Dance and a friend shared drinks while watching a hockey game that night. They were in the bar for more than four hours.

“He got in after drinking alcohol for hours and as soon as he got into his Tesla he started flying,” said the Crown.

The court heard evidence from police, a vehicle believed to be Dance’s Tesla was seen travelling 148km/h along Mosley Street seconds before the crash happened. The defence said the Crown could not prove the vehicle in question belonged to Dance.

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The court heard Dance, and his friend had gone out to dinner that night in Thornbury where they shared wo bottles of wine then went to the bar in Wasaga Beach about two kilometres from the crash site.

The crash happened minutes after Dance and his friend were seen leaving the bar.

“He literally had the pedal to the metal,” said Kandola, “Literally flooring it up until two seconds before the crash.”

He said the vehicle driven by Dance hit the Nissan driven by Lynne from behind and sent it spinning before the Nissan landed on its roof. Lynn was travelling the speed limit, the Crown said, but looked stationary in comparison to the Tesla, which recorded the crash on several of its on-board cameras.

There were no “mechanical defects,” said the Crown. “The speed was outrageous.”

The defence for the first time in trial, Wednesday, all but conceded Dance was behind the wheel that night, however, his lawyer Robert Geurts told the court the case against Dance had several problems.

“This entire case has been misunderstood from the very beginning,” said the experienced defence lawyer.

The defence called witness testimony in some instances absurd. Geurts alleged officers and witnesses “accommodated” their evidence that was then “tainted” because of pressures and a perceived rush to judgement.

Geurts also took aim at the crash reconstructionist from the OPP, who was qualified as an expert witness in collision reconstruction. Geurts called the report findings wrong.

The defence did not call any evidence in trial but suggested to the OPP crash reconstructionist there may have been a defect in the Tesla that caused it to speed up on its own. Data had been provided by Tesla to police, of the final five seconds prior to the crash, from the vehicle’s Airbag Control Module.

The defence alleged the vehicle should have decelerated without pressure applied to the pedal, but it accelerated instead.

The defence said it did not dispute toxicology results based on blood drawn from Dance in hospital following the crash which showed Dance had between three and a half to four times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.

“You cannot come to the conclusion he was the most blameworthy and put the pedal to the metal” as the Crown suggested, he said.

Justice Mark Edwards is scheduled to deliver his judgement next Tuesday.