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N 2 O 0 G 13! N I R2012 has come and gone and we’re still here
RED DEER
ADVOCATE WEEKEND EDITION BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
PAGE A6 Django Unchained A lot of love in Tarantino’s latest film
SATURDAY, DEC. 29, 2012
From sea to table C4
Snapshots of Vietnamese cuisine
Rebels vs. Oil Kings B1
Edmonton thumps Red Deer 6-1
B4
IAL FEATURE ADVOCATE SPEC
Photos by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
RCMP Cpl. Donavan Gulak has all the latest state-of-the-art equipment at his disposal for recording images and data at crash scenes, including a robotic total survey device, GPS sensors and an unmanned aerial vehicle that can record video and images from above the crash site. See related video at www.reddeeradvocate.com.
Facing the aftermath of drunk driving This is the sixth in a series of Red Deer Advocate stories on the impact of impaired driving on our community, and the various efforts to put an end to the carnage caused by drunk drivers. BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Emergency sirens will have already faded into the distance when RCMP Cpl. Donavan Gulak arrives at the scene of a fatal collision that claimed four lives. All that is left is vehicle wreckage and the bodies of those who have died. “By the time I get to the scene, all the parties are gone. The injured or suspects are gone from the scene. I’m left with the aftermath,” said Gulak, a collision reconstructionist. Gulak, 40, recalled the scene where four foreign workers died and one was severely injured, in a head-on collision on Hwy 2 near Innisfail on March 4. “Part of my job is to pretty much get inside the vehicle or get right up close and personal,” Gulak said. “They had just picked up their supper. So it was still warm.” Tyler James Stevens, 30, has pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of criminal negligence. He will be sentenced on Jan. 4. Gulak, who has been in collision reconstruction since 2005 and has worked full time in the Red Deer area since 2009, was also the investigator at the March 31 crash on Hwy 11A that killed two Red Deer teenagers and injured three others. April Gail Beauclair, 30, slammed into the two teens who were trying to push-start a disabled car while its driver steered and pushed from the side. Gulak said those teens didn’t have a clue what was coming. “That particular car was already on the shoulder. They were as safe as they can be without pushing it into the ditch.” People assume when their vehicle is broken down, others will drive around them — but they shouldn’t make that assumption, he said. “Even with our emergency lights on, vehicles still smoke into us. Flash red and blue lights, going back and forth, and they plow into the back of our PCs (police cars).” As an investigator, Gulak remembers cases by file
PLEASE RECYCLE
City of Red Deer fire-medic Damian LaGrange: at times, the images are difficult to shake. number — not names. “That’s one of our coping mechanisms. We don’t deal with names. Bad enough we’ve got to know ages.” In 2006, he didn’t have that opportunity when he discovered a friend who died as a passenger in a single-vehicle collision in the Morinville area. The impaired motorist was driving aggressively, passing at a high rate of speed, lost control, flipped sideways into a tree and killed his friend. Gulak didn’t recognize the vehicle when he arrived so he didn’t expect a friend to be inside. “You can’t prepare yourself for arriving at a scene and sticking your head in that vehicle and recognizing the victim. It hits you and you’re not prepared. “The memories are still fresh in my head as the day it happened. And I see lots.”
WEATHER
INDEX
Sun and cloud. High -7. Low -13.
Five sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C7,C8 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E1-E4 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . .C6,D7,D8 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . C4,C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B8
FORECAST ON A2
Emergency workers, like Damian LaGrange, a fire-medic with Red Deer Emergency Services, are trained to rescue and perform triage under the most horrific conditions. But LaGrange said at times the image can be hard to shake. “We get a glimpse in time of a horrible event that affects so many lives,” said LaGrange, 38. “A car completely split in half with a seatbelt stretched right out and an occupant has been projected out of the vehicle despite the fact that she had her seatbelt on. “A body laying in a way that almost doesn’t resemble a person anymore.”
Please see DRIVING on Page A2
CANADA
BUSINESS
CHIEF URGED TO GIVE UP HUNGER STRIKE
LAST-MINUTE ‘CLIFF’ TALKS HELD
One of the two aboriginal MPs in the Conservative cabinet has called on Chief Theresa Spence to abandon her fast aimed at securing a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A3
President Barack Obama and Senate leaders launched last-minute talks Friday to avoid the severe austerity measures known as the ‘fiscal cliff’. C7