The trial for a Charlottetown man accused of impaired driving causing death got underway Monday in Slemon Park — with the defense intending to challenge who was actually driving the vehicle on Aug. 2, 2024.

Thommachen Thomas Panackal was charged after two people died in the single-vehicle crash in Albany, P.E.I.

Dona Shaji, 23, was pronounced dead at the scene, while 24-year-old Jugal Kishore Mehta later died of his injuries in a Nova Scotia hospital. 

The court heard Panackal was the third person taken to hospital with critical injuries, a traumatic brain injury that affects his memory, while a fourth occupant of the car is expected to be the key witness for the Crown’s case against the 27-year-old.

Panackal is facing five charges in total: two counts of impaired driving causing death, two counts of driving with over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood causing death, and one count of driving with a suspended licence, which stems from a prior impaired driving incident in March 2024.

Who was behind the wheel?

On the opening day of the trial, the court heard that nobody was actually in the car when first responders arrived on scene in the minutes after the Toyota Corolla seemingly left the road and rolled, landing in the ditch near the so-called Albany Y where the Trans-Canada Highway and Route 1A converge.

Mehta and Panackal were unconscious on the ground behind and in front of the car, while a 911-operator on speaker phone tried to calm and instruct the fourth occupant on how to perform chest compressions on Shaji, who was unconscious on the pavement.

The court heard police handled the scene like a life-saving operation and weren’t necessarily looking for criminality. They were trying to distract the lone conscious passenger and keep him out of the way while first responders worked on the other three.

The conscious occupant told police he was in the front passenger seat while Panackal drove and the two who died were in the back seat.

The court also heard the recordings of the 911 calls that were automatically dialed from the crash detection function in two cellphones. 

In one call, the conscious person can be heard screaming “Dona” repeatedly, while also telling the operator his friend was driving and “we just, like, lost control and flipped.”

Police noticed there were cannabis containers in the vehicle from pre-rolled joints and found a skinny, tall can of beer. When they asked the lone conscious person in the car if anyone had consumed alcohol or was impaired, he originally told the police no, but later changed his answer.

Two RCMP officers who gave testimony Monday told the court they held and maintained the scene for an accident reconstructionist. 

Accused was allegedly over the legal limit

The crash became a criminal investigation days later when police heard Panackal had “a very high ethanol reading” in the blood sample taken from him at Prince County Hospital in Summerside.

Police got warrants to seize that blood and sent it off for forensic analysis, which concluded his blood-alcohol level was 227 grams per 100mL of blood — just shy of three times the legal limit.

Under cross examination from Panackal’s lawyer, the RCMP investigators said they didn’t rule out anyone at first, but their only evidence that the impaired Panackal was the one behind the wheel was the account given by the vehicle’s fourth occupant — who was exhibiting behaviour on scene described as “erratic” and “very distraught, upset, excited.”

Officers told the court they believed that to be consistent with someone who was in shock or had just been through a traumatic event — including the on-scene death of Shaji — and they were close enough to him that they believed they would have noted the smell or signs that he was impaired by alcohol.

Police later learned that the occupant who gave that account had also been drinking that night. The group were at a small party at Panackal’s home when they decided to drive to Borden-Carleton to watch the sunrise. 

The defence went back and forth with the investigating officer on why he did not ask for a blood sample from the fourth person in the car, whether he was truly looking for signs of impairment, and whether people had previously lied in his decades of policing experience.

The trial is solely before a Supreme Court justice and is scheduled to continue for the rest of the week. 

The Crown is expected to take three days to call its remaining witnesses, including the fourth occupant of the car, other police officers, people who stopped at the crash scene and staff who handled Panackal’s blood in hospital. 

After that, the defence will have its chance to call witnesses and introduce evidence.