Oliver Karafa found guilty of impaired driving causing death.
Posted May 21, 2014 4:21 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Verdict day. Guilty on all counts.
Justice Gary Trotter finds Oliver Karafa was driving “twice the speed limit” and ” four times over the legal limit when he was driving” before he crashed his car and killed his friend, David Chiang.
Chiang, 19, was killed instantly in a “violent and lethal” crash at 2:30 a.m. April 3, 2012. Witnesses said it sounded like a plane crash.
The car was cut in two. Karafa walked away with scratches. Chiang, was ejected from the car, the impact cutting his seat belt. His skull hit a pole causing “a complete expulsion of his brain onto the street and windows.”
A traffic officer testified the car would have been travelling around 120 km/h or greater.
Earlier in the evening Karafa met a female friend from Extreme fitness and went drinking at a bar. They were soon joined by Chiang at another bar. The bar tab shows they had two pints, a Black Russian, four jack Daniels and four pitchers of beer.
Video from Karafa’s apartment shows the three back at his building to pick up the woman’s car. She drove home assuming Chiang would get a taxi.
At 2:10 a.m., Karafa’s Land Rover is seen leaving the underground. Chiang is in the passenger’s seat. He speeds along Mount Pleasant Road and loses control.
Karafa’s sister Edita Karafova was looking for him and was the first on the scene. Witnesses heard Karafa say, ” I’m f—ed. I’m going to jail. I killed someone.”
Karafa was arrested and charged with impaired driving causing death; driving while over legal limit of alcohol; criminal negligence cause death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle cause death.
“It’s difficult to imagine that anyone survived that crash.”
Karafa remains on bail pending his sentence hearing.
