COLLISION - STATEMENTS BY SUSPECT DRIVER AND OBTAINING HOSPITAL RECORDS
Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 9:40PM The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Mr. Murray's conviction for "over 80" causing bodily harm. Counsel will find this decision useful as it reviews the way the hospital blood sample results were introduced at trial through the lab technician. R. v. Murray, 2013 ONCA 173
For more details, the trial decision is found at R. v. Murray, 2011 ONSC 3735.
An earlier ruling, R. v. Murray, 2011 ONSC 2537, addressed the following investigative issues that often arise in cases where a collision has occurred :
Are some or all of the statements of the accused following the motor vehicle accident admissible at trial? (statements to ambulance attendants, statements before caution and after caution (in hospital), Highway Traffic Act accident report statements (in hospital)).
Are some or all of the statements of the accused admissible to support an application for a search warrant for the production of the hospital records?
A seperate earlier ruling, R. v. Murray, 2011 ONSC 2538, considered a rare Crown application to introduce an out of court statement from the now deceased mother of the accused in which she stated that "I certainly wasn't" driving the car. She was 90 years old at the time of the collision.