CAMBRIDGE - A Cambridge bar has been charged with criminal negligence causing death in connection to a crash that killed a Puslinch man last year.

Waterloo Regional Police laid the charge against St. Louis Bar and Grill on Saginaw Parkway in Cambridge. The business and four individuals associated with it - two owners and two staff members - were already facing 21 provincial Liquor Licence Act charges including selling liquor to an intoxicated person, permitting drunkenness on a licensed premises, and failing to facilitate inspection.

On the night of Nov. 6, 2019, Jason Fach, a 38-year-old Cambridge man, collided head-on with a car driven by Kenneth Scott, 67, of Puslinch Lake. Scott died of his injuries shortly after.

Fach's criminal trial revealed he'd arrived at the Cambridge bar just after 5 p.m., already showing signs of intoxication. He drank at least four 20-ounce draft beers within an hour, and left before 7 p.m.

About five minutes later, he struck a parked car, failed to stop, and turned onto Townline Road. Just after 7 p.m., he swerved into oncoming traffic on Townline, hitting Scott's car. When tested, Fach had nearly three times the legal amount of alcohol in his blood.

Fach pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death late last year, and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was also banned from driving for 11 years. A tearful Fach apologized to the Scott family at his sentencing hearing.

It's unusual for a business or one of its employees to be criminally charged in connection to an impaired driving case.

"Although civil liability can, and has repeatedly, been extended to those that overserve people who then go on to cause injuries or damages to themselves or other people, criminal charges remain relatively rare," Michael Lacy, a Toronto lawyer and the immediate past-president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, noted in an email. Lacy is not connected to the St. Louis Bar and Grill case.

"The standard for convicting bar owners or servers would require proving a marked and substantial departure from what would be expected of a reasonable person on the same circumstances with foreseeability of harm being occasioned," Lacy wrote. "I would think that charging the bar (i.e. as an entity) as opposed to individuals would also create even greater challenges."

Last year, a bar server in eastern Ontario was charged with two counts each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm in connection to a 2017 crash that killed two teens and injured two others. That case is still before the courts. Provincial Liquor Licence Act charges have been laid in the past against Waterloo Region businesses in the wake of fatal crashes caused by impaired driving.

A call to St. Louis Bar and Grill on Friday yielded a quick "no comment" from the person who answered the phone. Representatives from the bar are scheduled to appear in court on April 22.

bdavis@therecord.com

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Twitter: @DavisRecord