The West Vancouver man accused of a hit-and-run that left a cyclist with serious injuries says he was not behind the wheel on the night of the crash.

William Charlton McEachnie, 49, is facing one count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident involving bodily harm related to the June 10, 2017 crash on the 1900 block of Bellevue Avenue.

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In that crash, which took place around 8:30 p.m., the driver of a black pickup truck plowed into West Vancouver cyclist Eric Latta, leaving him with persistent concussion symptoms, three broken ribs, severe whiplash, a herniated disk in his neck, ligament damage to his ankle and knee, as well as road rash.

Testimony in court on Monday focused on McEachnie’s timeline the night before the crash, the day of the crash and the two days after.

McEachnie took the stand in his own defence and told the court he had gone out the night before the crash to get cigarettes, and on his drive home, heard a sound while driving on the same stretch of road as the crash. He noticed some damage to the hood of his truck when he arrived home, he said.

“I was driving up Bellevue and I believe I might have clipped a mirror,” he said.

On the day of the crash, McEachnie said he made a trip to work on his dad’s boat at Lynnwood Marina in North Vancouver in the afternoon and dropped by his aunt’s home to pick up some tools but that his truck had been in his building’s parkade for hours before the crash.

“I had no reason to be on Bellevue,” he said. “I stayed in.”

The morning after the crash, McEachnie went back to his aunt’s to have a coffee and a chat. He testified that’s when he noticed there was more damage to the hood of his truck than he previously realized.

McEachnie testified that on the Monday following the crash, his aunt called him to say she had seen on the news that a bicyclist had been struck and hurt on Bellevue and that he should come watch the video the police had released because it looked like his truck.

“I said ‘Jesus, that does look like my truck’ but I wasn’t certain,” McEachnie said.

In his statement to police, read out in court on Monday, McEachnie told the investigating officer, “That’s why I’m here. I’m not sure if it was me or not. But if it was me, I want to take responsibility,” he said.

Under questioning from his lawyer, McEachnie said he would never drive away if he knew he had hit someone.

“I would have stopped and helped – done anything I could have,” he said.

In cross examination, Crown counsel Lara Sarbit questioned McEachnie on the timeline, repeatedly suggesting that it was in fact the Saturday night when he had gone out for cigarettes and damaged his truck, which would have put him on the same stretch of road at the same time as the crash. McEachnie denied that.

North Vancouver provincial court Judge Joanne Challenger is scheduled to give her verdict in the case in January.