Road crew workers who were at the scene of a fatal motor vehicle incident testified about the case this week in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo.
Raymond Ferguson, a Hub City Paving worker, died late at night Sept. 23, 2021, after he was struck by a vehicle while working with a crew on the Trans-Canada Highway south of Nanaimo. Christianne Marie Boufford was subsequently charged with dangerous driving causing death, dangerous driving causing bodily harm, impaired driving causing bodily harm and impaired driving causing death.
Mike Elliott and Katherine Toews, co-workers who were near Ferguson on the stretch of highway near Minetown and Kipp roads, took the stand Wednesday, July 30.
Appearing via video from the Lower Mainland, Elliott told Nick Barber, crown counsel, that he heard a screeching and the sound of a collision. He recounted seeing Toews fly approximately "six feet in the air" and land on her back, outside of the work zone.
Toews, who suffered broken ribs, recounted being radioed by a co-worker, telling her a driver was "coming in hot" or "coming in really fast."
"I [saw] one car coming in, and I said, 'Are you sure? Because this car is going a [slow] speed.' That's when I noticed a car, one headlight, coming from behind that, like a teal, white-coloured car, and one headlight, came from behind, clipped the car," she said. "I threw my hands in the air and said, 鈥榃hat the eff?' And that's the last thing I remembered."
During cross-examination by Dale Melville, one of Boufford's legal representatives, Toews noted that the crew's clothing was "retro-reflective" which reflects light back at the source of the light. However, if the light source is overhead, the worker may not be as visible.
B.C. Supreme Court justice Douglas Thompson is presiding over the trial, which is scheduled to run through Friday, Aug. 1.
