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The mother of a teen driver involved in a deadly crash on Circle Drive says her son was high during a court appearance hours before the tragedy.
The woman, who can’t be identified because of the age of her son, told 650 CKOM the 17-year-old boy had a hearing on unrelated breach conditions hours before the collision.
“In the courtroom, they literally kept him last. He was slobbering, he was foaming at the mouth,” she said.
“I wanted him arrested … I kept saying, ‘I’m scared he’s going to kill someone or himself.”
But the boy wasn’t taken into custody.
His mother said after court, he went home, changed, wrote an angry Facebook post and afterwards got into a car. He then allegedly hit another vehicle near the family’s home before heading onto Circle Drive.
At 1:25 p.m. Wednesday, emergency crews were called to a three-vehicle crash on the freeway between Attridge Drive and 108th Street.
According to police, the teen was driving north on Circle Drive when his vehicle hit a slow-moving piece of construction equipment.
The car then crossed the median and crashed into a southbound vehicle driven by a 70-year-old man, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police confirmed two reports were made about the suspect’s erratic driving prior to the crash. An investigation is ongoing and no driving charges have been laid in connection to the incident.
The boy’s mother said she spoke with him after the crash.
“He’s devastated …crying and upset, and I don’t know what to do. I’m so sorry all this happened, I tried to stop it.”
She said the teen’s drug use started in spring 2015 and wasn’t a secret to those who knew him, describing how she would find “plates of cocaine” along with rolled up bills.
She took him to a treatment centre, which worked for a period of time, but said he refused help after relapsing.
“I couldn’t force him, he wouldn’t go. So I reached out to the authorities, to his probation officer—that’s how it started,” she said.
“I said, ‘My son is a drug addict, it’s getting worse again. I don’t know what to do.’ The school knew he was high last year.”
At Wednesday morning’s hearing, she said the judge asked her if the boy was high; the Crown allegedly acknowledged the teen’s intoxicated state.
“They adjourned the court because he was too high, because they couldn’t deal with it, but they let him walk—he was stumbling.”
She was hopeful her son might be arrested right after the court appearance. Under his court-ordered conditions, the teen is not to take drugs and alcohol.
But his mother said the probation officer left prior to the teen’s hearing and didn’t speak on the boy’s state.
“All these people are leaving and I’m thinking, ‘Am I the only freaking person in this courtroom who cares?” she said, adding she was “shocked” by how the judge ignored her concerns.
The boy’s next court appearance is Friday.
