Surrey RCMP Constable Amrita Takhar testified she found a broken “crack pipe” in the pocket of a jacket inside a bag of clothing that belonged to Rituraj Kaur Grewal, the woman accused of criminal negligence causing death in the May 3, 2017 traffic crash in Cloverdale that killed Surrey teen Travis Selje.
Takhar, who has served as a Mountie for eight years, took the witness stand on Thursday, the fourth day of the trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. She told the court she searched clothing Grewal had identified as hers, seized the pipe, and Grewal was taken to a cell block.
Takhar also told the court Grewal’s car was searched and police found an oxycodone pill, six white tablets on the passenger side floor – one of which was analyzed “but did not come back to any drug” – and two unopened packets inside a beige wallet in the car’s cup holder that contained “a form” of naloxone that’s used to prevent overdosing.
The constable agreed under cross examination that the “crack pipe” could have been used for pot or tobacco and told the court she did not find any cocaine on Grewal or in her car.
A paramedic who also testified Thursday said the young woman “seemed indifferent to everything that happened” while en-route by ambulance to Surrey Memorial Hospital after the crash.
“She never once asked how anybody was.”
Patricia Grace Walters, who has been a paramedic for 15 years, said she was with the second emergency crew that arrived, by ambulance, to the crash scene at 64th Avenue and 176th Street.
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Walters said as she was approaching the car a police officer told her “there’s a woman in there you need to look at.
“He said there’s a woman in there, I think she may have had or is having a seizure.”
Walters found the driver’s side door open, the air bag had been deployed, and she saw a “young girl” sitting there with black tights on and with long black hair. “All her limbs were moving.”
“There was no traumatic injury,” Walters told the court. She said the young woman told her, “I need to call my mother,” and she wanted to get out of the car. Walters told her no. “I believe she asked what happened.”
Walters said the young woman’s level of consciousness was “good” but she seemed “off,” verbally slow, not talking clearly and “asking questions that weren’t really relevant to what has just happened. They were good questions – just not relevant to the car accident and the damage that had all been done.”
Walters rode with Grewal in the back of the ambulance to SMH.
“She seemed indifferent to the situation. She knew she hit one car; she was insistent on wanting to make phone calls about irrelevant things,” Walters said. “I believe there was a dog mentioned at one point, or something.”
“She never once asked how anybody was, and I never saw any seizure activity,” Walters told the court.
“I’m just judging what I saw from her, and there was no seizure,” she said. “No trembling, no drooling, no blood in the mouth.”
“I don’t recall her telling me she had a seizure, not at all,” Walters told the court.
The trial continues.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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