Jury begins deliberations in driving collision that killed eight-year old pedestrian | CBC News

A jury has started deliberations in the trial of Petronella McNorgan, the 79-year-old who was driving the car that struck a group of Girl Guides Canada members, killing an eight year-old girl. 

McNorgan has pleaded not guilty to one charge of criminal negligence causing death and seven counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. 

The 12-member jury also has the option to consider the lesser charges of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. 

The charges stem from a vehicle collision on the night of Nov. 30, 2021, at the intersection of Wonderland Road and Riverside Drive. 

A statement of facts agreed to by both the Crown and defence details how, just before 7 p.m. on that night, McNorgan was driving her 2017 Honda CRV westbound on Riverside toward the busy intersection. Her car clipped the back end of a Jeep stopped at the red light, then continued through the intersection.

On the west side of the intersection, her car struck a light standard, sheared off a small tree and ran into a group of Girl Guide Canada members as they walked on the sidewalk. 

The car slammed into the group, leaving one child dead. She cannot be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban. Seven others in the group, including five seven-year-olds, a 14-year old girl and a 39-year-old woman, were injured. 

After the collision with the pedestrians, McNorgan’s car crossed Riverside Drive, struck a tree in the park on the south side of the street before coming to rest in a parking lot near the Cancer Survivor’s Garden. 

McNorgan told police at the scene that the car’s brakes failed. During the three-week trial, the court heard that experts who examined the car afterward said it was functioning properly. 

Also presented in court was data from the Honda’s crash recorder, which said the car was travelling at speeds reaching 121 km/h in the moments before the collision with the pedestrians. 

McNorgan’s lawyer Phillip Millar argued his client did what she could to control the car that night, and said the collision was a result of a terrible accident, not a criminal act. 

The Crown’s case will hinge on whether the jury believes McNorgan’s actions that night amount to “a substantial departure from the standard of care expected by a reasonable person in the circumstances.” 

In his closing arguments, Crown prosecutor James Spangenberg pointed to crash data recorder evidence which recorded that the car’s accelerator was pushed down, and the brake pedal not depressed, in the moments prior to the collision.