The man accused of killing two 19-year-old pedestrians in an impaired driving crash in Scarborough wiped away tears and appeared emotional as he was denied bail in court Monday evening, less than 24 hours after the crash.

Michael Johnson, 40, of Pickering, mostly kept his head bowed down in his hands throughout his lengthy bail hearing in a Scarborough courtroom. At times, he could be seen breathing heavily, his body shaking, before Justice Thomas Cleary made his ruling.

Bail is typically denied in cases that include firearms and vulnerable people in the community, but a car can also be considered a dangerous weapon, Cleary noted, ruling that “a detention order is necessary.”

In a news release later Monday, Centennial College identified the two dead teens as students Damir Kussain and Wei Jie Zhu-Li.

The school said Wei Jie’s older brother, 20-year-old Jun Jie Zhu-Li, was also injured in the crash and is in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

All three were international students at the college.

Considering the gravity of the case and the circumstances, including the fact that the accused was allegedly drunk and that two individuals are dead, bail would not have been appropriate for Johnson, Cleary said in court.

Johnson is facing nine total charges including multiple counts each of impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death.

Toronto police said Johnson was driving a 2014 Mazda east on Progress Avenue at Markham Road at around 6:35 p.m. on Sunday when he went through the intersection and lost control of the car. He then mounted the sidewalk, struck a guardrail and hit three pedestrians who had been walking on the south sidewalk, police said.

When police arrived, two 19-year-old men were lying on the ground. They were taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, where they later died.

The third pedestrian was also taken to hospital in serious condition.

Police said that the three men were headed out to get a bite to eat when they were hit.

“Two young men dead. Another in hospital. Simply walking along the sidewalk,” Toronto police Traffic Services Supt. Scott Baptist tweeted Monday morning, adding the crash was a “tragic collision and completely preventable.”

Johnson was brought into court in handcuffs, wearing a black jacket, dark blue pants and black shoes, his hair clean and short.

About a dozen people were in the audience for the hearing. One woman, seated with Johnson’s family, could be seen sobbing throughout.

As the judge read his decision, one family member put her hands over her mouth. Another fell to her knees in tears.

As is typical, a publication ban was imposed on the information introduced during the proceeding.

“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we must inform our Centennial College community of a tragic single-vehicle collision near Progress Campus last night that resulted in the deaths of two of our students and serious injury to another,” Marilyn Herie, vice president, academic and chief learning officer, said in a news release.

“All three victims are international students with us, and they were staying in our Progress Campus residence over the holiday break. Two students, who are brothers, are from China and the third is from Kazakhstan.”

Herie said that there are about 250 Centennial students living on campus over the holiday break, many of them too far from home to make the trip back.

The college said it was arranging for on-site grief counselling.

By Monday morning, the intersection had been reopened, but tire marks were still visible on a long stretch of the sidewalk where the driver went over the curb and hit the pedestrians.

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Shafwan Kaushik, who works at a nearby Petro Canada gas station, said the intersection is always “too busy” with cars getting off or on Highway 401, or going to the Scarborough Town Centre.

“It’s always worrying to be walking and crossing that space,” he said. “So many people drive crazy and don’t follow the rules. It’s scary.”

Photographs of the crash scene, which showed skid marks on the sidewalk leading up to the right-hand guardrail along Progress Avenue, prompted several people to ask why that barrier was not instead between the road and the pedestrian path.

“It’s completely backward,” said Jessica Spieker, a spokesperson for support and advocacy group Friends and Families for Safe Streets.

“It would make far more sense to use the guardrail to protect vulnerable pedestrians. It’s hard to see why its positioned where it is,” she said, adding that “our hearts are with the devastated families.”

City staff did not immediately respond to request for comment about the location of the guardrail.

In statement, Mayor John Tory said the city is “working relentlessly to make our streets safer through road redesign, lowering speed limits, increased traffic enforcement, and improved technology that protects vulnerable road users, but driver behaviour — including the absolutely unacceptable decision to drive impaired — must also change.”

He wrote: “This is a devastating tragedy to the Centennial College community and to the friends of these young students from China and Kazakhstan.

“It is also an infuriatingly preventable loss of life and one every person in our society should be committed to preventing so that no family has to suffer this unspeakable loss.”

Outside the courtroom, Opa Day said she had come to the court in support of the two mothers won’t see their children alive again. She said she didn’t know them, and doesn’t know Johnson, but said the deaths hit close to home.

“I have a child who is at school in Ottawa. She walks too,” she said. “There are so much fear now about these cars and drivers all over our streets.”

Police are asking local residents, businesses and drivers, who may have security or dash-camera footage of the area or incident, to contact investigators.

Johnson is next scheduled to appear in court by video on Jan. 3.

Forty pedestrians have been killed on Toronto streets so far this year.