Car jumped onto Hwy. 97

Photo: CTV

The pursued Eagle Talon, alleged to have been driven by Donald Brodie, sits on the grass near Dundas Road.

As police pursued a vehicle in the early hours of Dec. 6, 2013, it jumped a grassy median and fled in the wrong direction on Highway 97, before hitting and seriously injuring a pedestrian.

The trial for Donald Brodie, the man accused of driving the black Eagle Talon that fled a police check stop on Springfield Road near Leckie Road, continued in Kelowna Supreme Court Tuesday.

Const. Chris Larson pursued the suspect vehicle from the check stop to Dease Road, an industrial area north of Leathead Road, where it cut west towards Highway 97 just north of the Lexus car dealership.

“The suspect vehicle went straight on into the grassy median and the concrete, causing the vehicle to go airborne,” Const Larson said. “I believe it actually cleared the grassy median because I don't recall any marks in the grass.”

Larson said the suspect vehicle landed on the highway, turned left and sped off southbound, travelling in the northbound lane. A single oncoming vehicle was forced to pull over to the shoulder of the highway, to avoid the oncoming Eagle Talon.

Larson, along with a second pursuing officer behind him, stopped their pursuit.

“Pursuits at any time are dangerous depending on the conditions and factors, but Highway 97 at any time can be extremely busy,” Larson said. “There was concern that if we continued on 97, it would increase the risk to the public.”

Larson lost sight of the suspect vehicle as it turned east on Leathead Road. A short while later, the chase came to a violent end, at the intersection of Dundas Road and Dundee Road.

“The suspect vehicle could be observed, there was a fire hydrant that had been sheared off, and was shooting water at least 15 feet in the air,” Larson said. “In the middle of the road on Dundas, just north of Dundee Road, there was a gentleman lying on the road being attended to.”

The collision put Steve Kania in a medically-induced coma, and left him with head trauma and fractures to his lower back.

Upon his arrival at the scene, Const. Larson said Nathan Fahl was lying on the road being handcuffed, while another man and a woman were being led to a police vehicle.

Fahl was originally charged as the driver of the Eagle Talon, until Brodie told police that he was in fact behind the wheel.

Two of those confessions were deemed inadmissible last week.

In a letter to several Kelowna media outlets in June 2014, Brodie laid partial blame on the pursuing officers for causing Kania's injuries. The following October, the Crown decided against laying charges against the officers.

The Crown expects to wrap up submissions Wednesday.