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Witness testifies boat was doing doughnuts

A Magna Bay cabin owner testified in B.C. Supreme Court he was passed at “excessive speed” by another boat.
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n RCMP accompany a houseboat as it was moved to an evidence storage facility following a fatal collision between a speedboat and houseboat on Magna Bay in 2010. Leon Reinbrecht is facing criminal negligence charges in connection with the death of the houseboat operator

By Cam Fortems, Kamloops This Week

A Magna Bay cabin owner motoring home on Shuswap Lake after watching fireworks in 2010 testified in B.C. Supreme Court he was passed at “excessive speed” by another boat that minutes later was cutting doughnuts on the water.

Bryan Lane testified on March 5 in the trial of Leon Reinbrecht, who is charged with one count each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm stemming from a collision in Magna Bay on July 3, 2010, that killed Ken Brown.

The Crown has said it intends to call as many as 50 witnesses during the trial.

The speed boat ended up inserted inside the houseboat piloted by Brown.

When the crash occurred, Lane had just returned to a dock at Lucerne Beach on the Shuswap’s North Shore.

Lane testified conditions were “pitch black” on a moonless and overcast night. He waited about 20 minutes following the end of the fireworks so boat traffic could thin out.

He motored back to his cabin with eight other people on board at a speed of between five and eight m.p.h.

“There was an excessive amount of boats [on the water],” Lane said. “It could have been as many as 100.”

On his way home, Lane testified he motored past a houseboat travelling at a slightly slower speed, seeing only its port navigation light. He said the sight of the boat in the darkness “caught me off guard.”

Not long after, Lane said, a speed boat came past at between 30 and 40 m.p.h.

“It was going by quite fast . . . All you could see was the white light on the back and the navigation light on the front,” Lane said.

It then made a series of sharp turns before heading back toward Magna Bay at high speed, when it paused again.

“I can see it doing circles . . . The boat is doing doughnuts,” he said.

The boat then continued toward Magna Bay.

In his opening address, prosecutor Neil Flanagan said the Crown will attempt to prove Reinbrecht had been with a group of people watching post-Canada Day fireworks.

The fireworks ended at 11 p.m., after which Reinbrecht dropped off three passengers on the shore.

Reinbrecht, his son and his son’s girlfriend then went back out on the water, Flanagan said, “travelling in a back-and-forth manner.”

The collision between the two boats took place at about 11:15 p.m., creating what was described by witnesses as a chaotic scene.

Lane said the boat he saw was travelling at excessive speed and erratically.

“It made me scared. I had a boat with eight other people.”