KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Police found 27 empty beer and cooler cans in a ski boat that crashed into a houseboat on Shuswap Lake last month, killing the houseboat’s driver, court documents reveal.
Chase RCMP filed the documents in order to get a warrant to seize blood samples taken from Leon Reinbrecht, the ski boat’s driver.
Reinbrecht’s blood was collected at Royal Inland Hospital after the July 3 crash. Police state in the court documents they expect the blood samples will reveal the man was impaired at the time of the accident.
Kenneth Brown was killed in the crash.
The RCMP’s information to obtain a search warrant spells out what led investigators to suspect Reinbrecht may have been impaired at the time.
According to the documents, officers found 19 empty beer cans inside the ski boat as well as several empty cooler containers.
The officers also found a small baggie of marijuana near the ski boat, which was covered in bloody fingerprints. The inside of the ski boat was covered in blood.
The documents say officers spoke with Reinbrecht at the hospital. One of the officers noted a strong odour of liquor on the man’s breath and asked if he had been drinking earlier in the evening.
Reinbrecht replied that he drank one beer after the crash while he was trapped inside his ski boat which was inside the houseboat. He told police he was thirsty.
Officers also noted that Reinbrecht’s boat was not operating running lights at the time of the collision. The switch for the ski boat’s running lights was in the off position. The houseboat, in comparison, was operating all of its running lights as well as interior cabin lights.
Police use informations to obtain search warrants to articulate to a judge why they believe someone has committed an offence.
None of the information in the documents has been proved, nor is it considered evidence.
It’s not known if the blood samples seized revealed a blood-alcohol content in excess of the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle and Reinbrecht has not been charged with a criminal offence.
The documents show police spoke with witnesses who reported seeing Reinbrecht’s boat doing “high-speed doughnuts” in the moments before the crash.
One woman said Reinbrecht’s boat narrowly missed crashing into her boat just moments before the collision with the houseboat, the court documents say.
According to the documents, Reinbrecht gave a statement to police, telling officers he was on the lake to watch the fireworks and was driving his boat about 30 km/h. He said he did not see the houseboat because its lights were not on. He did not lose consciousness.
Officers searched police databases and noted Reinbrecht has three past convictions for impaired driving, according to the documents.