PENTICTON WESTERN
NEWS www.pentictonwesternnews.com
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Byelection victories spark optimism for Penticton NDP
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VOL.46 ISSUE 33
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Goalie battles shine early in Doyle Cup
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012
B.C. teachers ordered to complete report cards
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SOEC announces two hot entertainment enter ente e t rrttainment te i events for the summer
COURT HEARS OF TERRIFYING CRASH Kristi Patton
Western News Staff
Joe Fries/Western News
GOING FOR A LOOP — These thrill-seekers were suspended in mid-air Saturday on one of the West Coast Amusements rides in Penticton. The three-day fair wrapped up Sunday.
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“Absolute chaos” is what an RCMP of¿cer recalled of the scene of an accident last summer in Penticton where one man was killed, The four-day trial of Frank Tamok began on Monday at the Penticton provincial courthouse. The Keremeos man is charged with criminal negligence causing death, impaired driving causing death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, impaired driving causing bodily harm, causing an accident that resulted in a death and failure to stop at the scene of an accident. It was on July 3, 2011 that a white Kia, alleged to be driven by Tamok, collided with at least eight vehicles starting at the Channel Parkway and ending just past Airport Road. One of which carried 32-year-old Bradley Lentz of Devon, Alta., who was killed instantly. Kristy Pearce was driving on the Channel Parkway when she noticed a white car “driving erratically.” She explained it was about 100 yards away from the intersection at Skaha Lake Road when the white vehicle in front of her stopped dead for no reason, causing her to roll into it. She told the court the Kia then accelerated away, rear-ending a Jeep and pushing it around the corner onto Skaha Lake Road until it became free. “There is no other word to describe it other than it slingshot across to oncoming traf¿c and connected with a Dodge. When I say connected, I mean it literally lifted it off the ground,” said Pearce, adding the vehicle also hit the front end of the car behind the truck. Sara Amos testi¿ed about her frightening experience that day as a passenger in a vehicle driving eastbound on the four-lane Skaha Lake Road near Wright’s Beach campground. Amos told the court how she braced herself as she saw the white car pull in front of them. “I was terri¿ed. I thought we were going to get hit head on,” said Amos, explaining that the white vehicle was excessively speeding and jerking left and right as it came straight at the car she was in. Amos said a break in the lane of cars to the right
of them appeared and her driver quickly pulled into it, just a half car length more and they would have collided. The loud sound she described that came afterwards from behind was the white car hitting more vehicles that caused the GMC Brad Lentz Jimmy Lentz was driving to launch and eventually land near a fence upside down on the south side of Skaha Lake Road. His father, Carl Lentz, sat in court on Monday listening to the proceedings. Carl told the Western News his son was very athletic, with an extreme talent for photography and was generous. The type of man that would lend his shirt off his back to a stranger. “That’s just the type of guy he was. He touched so many hearts and was always helping everybody,” said Carl. Brad and his wife had returned from Australia, where they lived for about three years, just a month before the accident that claimed his life. The couple had come to Penticton to visit family that were staying at Wright’s Beach campground. Carl said his son had got into the vehicle that day to get some items from town. Instead, Bradley’s sister and her husband heard the accident unfold from where they were staying at the campground and rushed over to the scene, one of the ¿rst to assist. Since Bradley’s death, the Lentz family has started the B-Rad Foundation, which can be found on Facebook, with a goal of raising $50,000 by February. The money will be used for a bursary or scholarship for people or causes who embraced the same spirit as Brad, especially those interested in photography. That was his passion in life and displayed on a blog he kept. “Make sure no matter where you are or where you go, you stop and enjoy the experience. Smile at someone just because you can, look at the tree you walk past everyday and appreciate it, stop and take the photo you have been thinking about and enjoy life because the memories you create today are the ones you will remember tomorrow,” wrote Brad on a blog post just eight months before his death.
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