Nick Berto's pickup estimated at 117 km/h leaving Pine Plaza crash scene

The jeans and jacket worn by Paul VanderGriendt in the early hours of Mar. 12, 2016 were covered top to bottom by tire tracks from Nicholas Robert Berto's raised-body GMC pickup, jurors were told Wednesday at Berto's criminal trial.

City Police Constable Gediminas (Joe) Poderys testified that he found tracks left by Berto's oversized knobby off-road tires over much of VanderGriendt's brown Wind River jacket and American Eagle jeans.

"That's a tire mark, sir," Poderys told Assistant Crown Attorney Wesley Beatty from Parry Sound.

Constable Poderys showed two dramatic videos of the crash in which VanderGriendt, a Sault College flight instructor, was struck and run over by Berto's nine-year-old 2500-series GMC Sierra truck in the Pine Plaza parking lot after a party at the Harp Bar and Grill.

The videos, from security cameras at Food Basic and a nearby Shell station, showed acquaintances of VanderGriendt scattering to the left and right of the pickup as it approached.

VanderGriendt was directly in front of Berto's truck, facing a prominent 'Hillbilly Deluxe' sign atop the windshield.

He's seen going under the vehicle, which then leaves the scene, accelerating rapidly across the parking lot into the Pine-McNabb intersection.

Constable Poderys, a collision investigator trained in accident-scene reconstruction, used the videos to estimate the pickup's speed at 117 kilometres an hour as it ran a red light and passed through the intersection.

Poderys determined that the GMC Sierra had been customized with a lift kit that raised the pickup seven inches, affecting the height at which it struck VanderGriendt.

A week after the tragic collision, Poderys brought Berto's truck back to the crash scene, re-enacting its movements on the parking lot using both two-wheel and four-wheel drive.

He photographed the GMC vehicle with a mannequin of VanderGriendt's height dressed with a Toronto Blue Jays ball cap and other clothing similar to what VanderGriendt wore at the time.

Constable Poderys described the jacked-up truck as difficult to drive at slow speeds because of the separation between the knobby tire treads.

The crash left VanderGriendt, now 27, as a quadriplegic, ending his career as a pilot and flight instructor.

He now lives in Toronto and isn't expected to testify at Berto's trial.

Berto, now 20 years old, is charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and failing to stop to offer assistance to VanderGriendt.

The trial continues Thursday.

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