Kelly Sinoski (Vancouver Sun) – A Burnaby RCMP officer who allegedly ran a red light and crashed into a car carrying two young men during an emergency call last October has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.
Const. Petina Kostiuk was charged Monday in connection with the deaths of Albert Haczewski, 27, and his friend Koyo Walter Hara, 26, who died in the collision on Oct. 31.
The pair were driving home from a friend’s house just before 2 a.m. when Haczewski’s Chevrolet Cavalier was struck by a police cruiser at the intersection of Royal Oak and Kingsway.
Burnaby Cpl. Alexandra Mulvihill said the traffic light was red for the officer, who was responding to a call from a suicidal woman. The marked police car had its emergency lights and sirens on, police said.
A third car, which stopped on Kingsway after the driver noticed the police car, was also hit, but no one was seriously injured.
Hara’s mother Yasuko said Monday the charges against Kostiuk are just “one step” in coming to terms with the deaths of the two men, who had been best friends since Grade 2 and were buried together in one grave.
The families are hoping to get some compensation from the RCMP to help pay for a joint headstone designed of grey granite for the two friends.
“They were soulmates, for sure,” she said.
Yasuko said the two families have been waiting quietly for the investigations to be completed following the fatal crash. Haczewski, she said, was a “very safe driver.”
“I want people to know it was very dangerous driving by police, it shouldn’t be like that,” she said. “I want to let people know the truth. God knows.”
The charges against Kostiuk were laid following investigations by the Burnaby RCMP traffic section, two collision reconstructionists, an independent engineer and Transport Canada.
Burnaby RCMP is still conducting its own parallel investigation of Kostiuk’s conduct and have asked Vancouver Police to also conduct a review.
Kostiuk is traumatized by the incident and remains off duty on medical leave, police said.
“Whether or not she’ll be returning to duty, it’s too early to say,” Mulvihill said.
Neither Haczewski’s half-brother Thomas Natanek nor his mother were available Monday.
But Hara’s brother Taiyo Hara said the families were relieved they finally have some answers – and that there was no blame placed on Haczewski or Hara.
“Until the report came out we were very anxious and nervous and wondering if the RCMP was neglecting everything,” Taiyo said.
“Regardless of what happens with the trial or whether she’s found guilty or what the punishment is … we’re just kind of relieved there’s finally some movement.”
Taiyo said he hopes the crash will trigger the RCMP to “look at themselves and their policies and attitudes toward the Canadian public.”
But he added he also empathizes with Kostiuk.
“I do feel kind of sad for the constable; her life is completely diminished too,” he said. “It was a real surprise how heavy these charges are.”
Taiyo said he is still struggling to come to terms with the fact his brother and Haczewski are dead.
“It’s important people understand or realize the emotional things that are going on,” Taiyo said. “They had a lot of close friends and they keep visiting the graveyard; it’ll be a tribute to them as well.”
He added the two friends would have liked the headstone the families have designed. It will feature a photo of the two men and the poem A Thousand Winds.
“If they were alive today that would be the first thing they tagged,” he said.
The two men met at St. Francis de Sales elementary in Burnaby after Haczewski moved to B.C. from Montreal. They were close throughout school until their graduation from St. Thomas More Collegiate high school in Burnaby.
When Haczewski was 19, he moved to Poland to study computer science and the two were apart for six years. They reunited as soon as he returned to B.C. in 2006.
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