A Delaware father is charged with impaired driving causing death and criminal negligence after a horrific crash in London that killed two people and left three others, including himself, in hospital Friday.

The dead are 46-year-old Londoner Jerry Pitre and 23-year-old New Hamburg resident Cody Andrews, police said Friday. Both were mourned and remembered by friends and relatives in social media posts.

Many also took to social media to condemn drinking and driving after police announced charges in the devastating Thursday crash that tore families apart and scattered debris across an east-end city block.

Scott Altiman, 31, a father well known in Delaware’s minor hockey community, where he’s volunteered as a coach in recent years, is charged with two counts of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death and two of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.

He’s also charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. He was in hospital Friday morning with serious injuries.

Altiman was alone in the vehicle travelling south on Highbury Avenue just before 2 a.m. Thursday, when it collided with an eastbound vehicle with four occupants that had the right of way at Dundas Street, said London traffic Sgt., Amanda Pfeffer.

“Now, five families have been extraordinarily impacted by this tragedy. As an investigator, you can’t help but experience the tragedy as well,” said Pfeffer.

Pfeffer wouldn’t elaborate on the criminal negligence charges against the suspect, other than to say investigators “have evidence that would support the criminal negligence charges.”

For a conviction on criminal negligence, prosecutors must prove a suspect showed “wanton and reckless disregard” for the safety of others.

Witnesses at the scene Thursday said the vehicle heading down Highbury was travelling at an excessively high speed.

“Certainly, speed is one of the focuses of our investigation. It was apparent from our investigators at the scene that speed was a factor based on the debris field. The distance that the debris travelled, we are talking several hundred metres,” Pfeffer said.

She said Pitre and Andrews were acquaintances.

The two other people who were in the vehicle with Pitre and Andrews remained in hospital in fair condition, police said Friday.

The bare facts from the police report and the scene — two wrecked vehicles, a 100-metre stretch of debris, including a car tire, on both sides of Highbury — portrayed a moment of horror and tragedy at the intersection while most Londoners slept.

The impact sent one car into the parking lot of a Petro-Canada station on the southeast corner of the intersection. Fast-thinking gas station workers are being credited with turning off the fuel pump before a fire or explosion could be sparked.

The second vehicle crashed into the front porch of a house on the west side of Highbury about 100 metres south of the intersection.

Police ask anyone with information about the case to contact them at 519 661-5680.

jlobrien@postmedia.com

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