Seventeen months after a B.C. man was killed in a horrific crash on Shuswap Lake, the driver of the speedboat that caused the collision has been charged with criminal negligence.
Fifty-three-year-old Ken Brown was killed when his houseboat was struck by the smaller vessel late in the night of July 3, 2010.
Leon Michael Reinbrecht, 49, was driving the speedboat and has now been charged with criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm, police announced Thursday.
Notably, the charges against Reinbrecht do not include any involving impaired operation of the speedboat.
Police found at least 27 empty beer and vodka cooler cans when they searched Reinbrecht's boat after the crash and smelled alcohol on his breath, according to a search warrant. But a blood sample was never taken to determine whether he was drunk.
Reinbrecht told CTV News last year that he didn't see the houseboat in the dark and didn't realize it was there until he hit it.
Passengers on the houseboat told police that the houseboat had its running lights and interior lights switched on during the crash.
There were 13 people in Brown's houseboat at the time of the crash and three people in the speedboat. The force of the impact left the speedboat deeply imbedded inside the houseboat, and a total of eight were injured in the collision.
Reinbrecht is scheduled to make his next appearance in a Kamloops courtroom on Jan. 19.
