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Martin: Unrepentant drunk driver will have earned significant punishment

While the urge to drink can be overwhelming and extremely difficult to overcome, the same can't be said for the urge to get behind the wheel while impaired

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It’s a miracle Calgarian Kane Anignostis Burrows only killed one person during two drunken driving rampages in the city less than eight months apart.

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Burrows, who has yet to be sentenced on two sets of charges involving incidents on Dec. 23, 2024, and last Aug. 8, did kill his good friend, Zachary Legault, in the earlier incident while flying down Glenmore Trail S.W., weaving in and out of traffic before trying to pass a row of slower-moving vehicles on the road’s shoulder.

Martin: Unrepentant drunk driver will have earned significant punishment Back to video

That Burrows and a second passenger, Kristjan Kuqali, survived the crash in itself defied the odds.

Driving his mother’s stolen BMW, Burrows had gone to the Lennox Irish Pub on Signal Hill Centre S.W. to meet Legault and another friend, Joseph Shantz, where they drank.

The trio next went to the Grey Eagle Casino for a period of time, during which Burrows arranged to meet Kuqali at North Glenmore Park.

The return trip to the pub before going to the park had Shantz so concerned he decided to take his own vehicle, sparing him the potentially life-threatening crash that killed Legault.

A third trip to the Lennox had Kuqali concerned enough that he asked Burrows to slow down or to let him drive.

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With the roof of the convertible BMW down, Burrows did doughnuts in the snow-covered parking lot before heading back to Glenmore Trail to take Kuqali back to the park to get his car.

“He continued to drive aggressively, swerving in and out of lanes and travelling at speeds as fast as 160 km/h,” Crown prosecutor Greg Piper told court when Burrows pleaded guilty in connection with the deadly crash earlier this month.

The speed limit on Glenmore Trail is 80 km/h, the prosecutor said.

Unfortunately for Legault, and the injured Kuqali, a crane truck had broken down and pulled over to the shoulder Burrows attempted to navigate to get around the slower traffic.

He struck the crane at 103 km/h.

But the tragedy Burrows wrought did not bring out an immediate level of deep remorse in him, nor did it deter him from repeating his conduct months later.

At the death scene, when emergency officials arrived to try to save his friend’s life, Burrows was “argumentative and disruptive” with them, Piper said.

“Mr. Burrows swore at them, called them slurs, and threatened them with legal consequences,” the prosecutor said.

According to those same agreed facts, Burrows didn’t learn his lesson after being charged with causing Legault’s death due to his alcohol consumption, and he was back behind the wheel drunk again last Aug. 8.

He stole the keys to a second BMW owned by his mother (having demolished the other one) and was spotted by police driving at more than double the speed limit in an 80 km/h section of Macleod Trail.

When officers attempted a traffic stop, he sped off and almost immediately crashed into a row of parked cars, reaching 124 km/h in a 50 km/h zone just before the collision.

“CPS extracted him at gunpoint,” Piper told Justice Shane Parker, who will ultimately sentence Burrows for his crimes.

“They found open alcohol containers in the vehicle within reach of the driver’s seat.”

Alcoholism is a disease that grips millions of people worldwide.

Clearly Burrows is one of those people.

But while the urge to drink can be overwhelming and extremely difficult to overcome, the same can’t be said for the urge to get behind the wheel while impaired.

For that, Burrows must be significantly punished and he will be.

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But no matter how much jail time Burrows is handed, he will eventually return to society and have access to booze.

Hopefully by then he will have learned his lesson about the dangers of drinking and driving.

If not, he will be a ticking time bomb and an ongoing danger to everyone on Calgary’s roadways.

KMartin@postmedia.com

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