The impaired driving death trial of Michael Shaun Bomford got underway in Calgary on Monday.
The Crown claims the 54-year-old was three times over the legal limit when he crashed and rolled his Jeep Liberty on McKnight Boulevard on Oct. 18, 2016.
READ MORE: Calgary father charged with impaired driving in crash that killed teen daughter Meghan Bomford
All three occupants were thrown from the vehicle.
Bomford’s 17-year-old daughter Meghan died at the scene.
Bomford broke down in tears in court as off-duty nurse Jan Ginther, who ran to help the victims at the crash site, told the court how she found Meghan dead on the ground on McKnight Boulevard.
“I pulled back Meghan’s hoodie and what I saw indicated that nothing could be done for Meghan,” Ginther said.
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Fighting through her own tears, Ginther described how she then went on to help Meghan’s friend, 16-year-old Kelsey Nelson.
According to Ginther, Nelson was bleeding from the head and having trouble breathing because she was choking on her own blood.
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Ginther’s husband Kurt, a former volunteer Innisfail firefighter, also testified on Monday that he rushed to help the accused at the crash scene.
At first, he said Bomford was unresponsive and he could not detect a pulse.
When he returned a short while later, Kurt Ginther said Bomford had started breathing and “he was lying in a ball, on his side, crying.”
Under cross-examination from defence lawyer James Wyman, Kurt Ginther was asked if he smelled alcohol on Bomford’s breath, to which he replied that he did not.
Both Kurt and Jan Ginther told the court that when paramedics arrived on-scene, they declared Bomford dead, despite the couple’s insistence he was still alive.
“No, he’s not dead,” Kurt Ginther said he told EMS when he saw a tarp had been placed over Bomford.
According to Kurt Ginther, the tarp covered Bomford for at least five to 10 minutes before someone saw him moving.
Other Crown witnesses testified on Monday that they saw the Jeep Liberty driving erratically on McKnight Boulevard just before it crashed, swerving in and out of traffic and travelling at a high rate of speed.
The speed limit on McKnight is 80 kilometres an hour. The Crown alleges the Jeep was going at least 112 km/h.
Bomford has pleaded not guilty to all six charges in connection with the crash.
The judge-only trial is scheduled for seven days.
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