Charges have been laid in connection with a high-profile collision on Kensington Avenue in October of last year.
The Estevan Police Service (EPS) announced on Feb. 23 that Richard Allen Brian Guillas, a 42-year-old man from Estevan, has been charged with one count of dangerous driving, two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm, two counts of driving while over .08 causing bodily harm, and one count of driving while suspended.
He is slated to appear in court on April 4.
Police Chief Paul Ladouceur said it’s not unusual for so much time to elapse before charges are laid. Guillas also suffered some serious injuries in the collision, so the police had to wait for his condition to improve before he could be charged.
“Obviously, we wait on such reports as toxicology for … blood alcohol content, and those sorts of things,” Ladouceur told the Mercury. “There is sometimes a delay created by that, but we want to have all the information present before we move forward.”
The RCMP’s forensic and toxicology department, traffic reconstructionists, members of the local traffic unit and an EPS sergeant were involved with the investigation.
Ladouceur noted that investigators were confident from the outset that it was an impaired driving accident, but they wanted to have all the information gathered before they pressed forward with charges.
Police received a lot of questions from people in the community on the status of the investigation, which he believes reflects the level of interest in the case. But the investigation needed to run its course.
“Things take time,” said Ladouceur. “Some investigations come together very quickly, and charges are laid relatively fast, and other ones take longer.
“There are a number of reasons that might be. One of them might be the different type of evidence that has to be collected. Some witnesses still needed to be interviewed, or reconstruction of an accident scene that might be delayed for some period of time.”
It was one of three prominent accidents that occurred in Estevan in a nine-day span in October. The latter two collisions involved alcohol, and resulted in a crackdown on impaired driving by the EPS that continued for the rest of 2015, and has lingered into the first two months of
this year.
The accident on Kensington occurred during the Thanksgiving long weekend. The northbound car driven by Guillas entered the southbound lane on Kensington and struck a southbound taxi that had two passengers.
“It was an unfortunate event, without a doubt,” said Ladouceur. “There were two individuals who decided to do the right thing and take a taxi cab home, and unfortunately were met by an impaired driver. It’s somewhat ironic when you’ve got someone trying to do the right thing.”
Guillas was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital by ambulance, and later airlifted by the STARS Air Ambulance to Regina.
Ladouceur couldn’t comment on the current health of Guillas.
The two passengers in the taxi were transported to hospital via ambulance, and later taken to the Regina General Hospital.
