Pubdate: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 Source: Calgary Herald (Canada) Copyright: 1999 Calgary Herald Contact: P.O. Box 2400, Stn. M, Calgary, Alberta T2P 0W8 Fax: (403) 235-7379 Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Forum: http://forums.canada.com/~calgary Author: Bob Beaty DRIVER NOT GUILTY OF FATAL CRASH A young Calgary man who smoked marijuana before causing a holiday highway accident that killed one person and injured others limped out of court Tuesday weeping after being found not guilty of impaired driving causing death. Patrick Houlgrave, 23, was comforted by friends outside the courtroom while overcome with the conflicting emotions of relief over his acquittal and grief over those he killed and injured, his defence lawyer Rick Muenz said. But there was nothing but grief inside the courtroom as friends and relatives comforted the woman who lost her husband and the father to their three young children in the accident. "We are very, very sad knowing an innocent man can be killed by someone smoking marijuana and that man just walks away," said Judi Yacyshyn, one of the grieving widow's friends. During the week-long trial that ended Friday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Peter McIntyre heard that Houlgrave was driving west on the Trans-Canada Highway on Dec.27, 1997, when his truck went out of control, west of Banff and slammed into an oncoming van. The van's driver, Doug Harrison, 36, died at the snowy accident site. Harrison's wife, Arlene Hunter, was badly injured, as were their three children. McIntyre said evidence from a bus driver and tour guide following Houlgrave's truck before the accident convinced him that Houlgrave was not driving erratically and that his vehicle was likely thrown into the eastbound lane after a tire caught some snow on the road. McIntyre said he was also convinced by defence witness Dr. Barry Beyerstein, a Simon Fraser University psycho pharmacologist professor, that the amount of the active marijuana agent found in Houlgrave's blood was not sufficient to cause a driving impairment. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D