Crash victim ‘had no chance’

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This article was published 14/12/2009 (5761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Somewhere out there are the people who stole a Hummer Friday and were involved in the horrific crash that killed 47-year-old Zdzislaw Andrzejczak.

Witnesses said they’re young, teenaged boys most likely, probably three of them.

But police have not made any arrests so far.

And those young people are out there.

"Turn yourself in on your own terms," instead of constantly looking over your shoulder for arrest an instant away, police are urging anyone involved.

"Some people just turn themselves in," said Const. Jason Michalyshen. "They’ll consult legal counsel first and they’ll make arrangements through them.

"You hope someone realizes, ‘wow, this went too far.’ To be driving it in that manner takes it to a different level — you’re jeopardizing the lives of everyone," said Michalyshen.

But Roberta Campbell, a defence lawyer and partner at Campbell Gunn Inness, said Sunday that unless a person has been named as a suspect, she doesn’t recommend turning yourself in.

"Under no circumstances would I tell my clients to turn themselves in. If you turn yourself in, you flag yourself as a person involved and we all know there are wrongfully convicted people (in prison). But if you’ve been identified as a suspect and the police are looking for you, I would go with my client and turn them in," she said.

Campbell said judges tend to treat people more favourably if they’ve turned themselves in when it comes to bail.

"It shows you’re not running and can be trusted with respect to bail conditions," she said.

The Hummer was stolen from an airport-area hotel’s parking lot between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday, Michalyshen said.

Andrzejczak was driving northbound on Andrews Street when a Hummer, which police said was being driven "at a high rate of speed" westbound on Alfred Avenue, plowed into the passenger side of the vehicle around 3 p.m.

Less than 40 minutes later, Andrzejczak was pronounced dead in hospital.

Andrzejczak always said he was the best driver in the family.

But his grieving widow said there was nothing her husband could have done to prevent a stolen Hummer from ramming his small compact car less than two blocks away from his home Friday afternoon.

"He had no chance," Jolant, his wife of 24 years, said, her eyes rimmed with tears.

Sitting at the table in her small kitchen in a home on Redwood Avenue, Jolant said instead of the young people inside the Hummer, she feels anger towards their parents.

"It’s too easy for the parents," she said. "This happened not now. This happened when they were young. This is the parents’ fault."

Jolant said her husband was "a big man. A healthy man. Doesn’t drink. Doesn’t smoke. Eats right."

Jolant said she spoke to her husband for the last time just an hour before the collision.

"He planned to pick up some parts for the car. He was coming home to take the dog out," she said.

"I heard about it at four something. The police called about an accident and they wanted me to come to the hospital. "(When I arrived) they said he passed away. I said he’s unconscious. You can’t just believe this happened… try for a moment to think about it happening to you. It’s unbelievable."

She said her husband was a friendly man who helped fix friends’ vehicles and loved to go fishing.

Jolant said both she and her 23-year-old son, Kamil, are taking the sudden death hard. Andrzejczak came to Canada from Poland about 20 years ago to make a better life for his family. Jolant said her husband was an auto mechanic, but wasn’t currently working.

Jolant said the last three days when her husband dropped her off at work, including Friday, she asked for a kiss.

"I would joke and said, ‘Give me the kiss.’ He said ‘Get out of here.’

"Now, no kiss."

Police are asking anyone with information on the crash to call them at 986-6271 or CrimeStoppers at 786-TIPS (8477).

 

— With files from Geoff Kirbyson and Nick Martin

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

A decade of deaths

 

The crash that killed Zdzislaw Andrzejczak was at least the 10th fatal crash involving a stolen vehicle in Manitoba this decade.

 

January 2009: Trisha Jones, 18, and her cousin, Tiffany Abraham, 19, died from injuries they received when their Dodge Neon collided with a stolen Plymouth Voyager van at Hwy. 59 and Stead Road, north of Winnipeg, on Jan. 28, 2009.

March 2008: Antonio Lanzellotti, 55, was killed when a stolen Chevrolet Avalanche with seven occupants ran a red light at Portage Avenue and Maryland Street and struck his vehicle at 138 kilometres an hour. A customer in his cab was seriously injured.

July 2007: James Duane, 58, was out for a quick bike ride near Burrows Avenue when he was struck and killed by a 15-year-old driving a stolen truck.

May 2007: Rachelle Leost, a 38-year-old mother of three, was killed when her car was struck by a speeding van that ran a stop sign at the corner of Arlington Street and Cathedral Avenue on the day before Mother’s Day in May 2007.

May 2005: Jennifer Swain, 24, died of massive trauma after the car she was a passenger in was hit by a stolen Saturn on Hwy. 9. Three other occupants suffered serious injuries.

April 2004: Breayon Kakekagumick died from injuries he sustained when the stolen car he was riding in crashed into a semi-trailer truck at Main Street and Partridge Avenue at 120 km/h.

November 2000: Jovita Ominga, 52, was sent flying through the air and killed when she was hit by a stolen pickup truck.

July 2000: Harry Yurkiw, 57, was killed after being struck by a stolen vehicle at the corner of Hargrave Street and Notre Dame Avenue.

May 2000: Andrea Henry, 18, was killed while riding in a stolen Dodge Neon. The driver, John David Burton, lost control of the car on the Trans-Canada Highway just east of Winnipeg.