Edmonton police have charged a B.C. man with multiple offences after a fatal crash in Edmonton's downtown early Wednesday morning.
A car crashed into a tree just after 1 a.m. at 107 Street and 102 Avenue.
Police charged the driver, 33-year-old Michael Jacob Grenke of Kelowna, with dangerous driving causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, and impaired driving causing death.
Police said the front passenger, a 31-year-old male, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Emergency crews had to cut the roof off the top of the car to free another male passenger who was sitting in the rear of the car. Both the driver and the rear passenger were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police believe both speed and alcohol played a role in the crash.
"You choose to drink, you choose to drive, you choose to speed, so it's all a matter of choice," said Edmonton Police Service Sgt. Jerry Sobchyshyn.
Capt. Dave Matwchuk with Edmonton Fire Rescue has been going to crashes for over 30 years. He said not only do firefighters arrive first on the scene, but they have they the unpleasant task of cleaning up the site after the investigation is complete.
"You have a heart and all these images stay with you whether long term or short term, throughout your career," he said.
Back in the 90s, former Edmonton Mayor Bill Smith made a public campaign to make Edmonton streets the safest in the world by 2010.
"The media talking about it certainly helped, but we have to obviously take a new path. I'm not sure what that is, I'm not sure how we're going to reach people, but it's a tragic situation," Smith said Wednesday.
So far this year, 22 fatal collisions have occurred in Edmonton.
With files from CTV's David Ewasuk
