Accused in fatal crash appears in court

A 35-year-old man was chargedtodaywith impaired driving causing death and he will stay in jail until his next court appearance.

Blaine Thomas Taypotat is accused of killing a 23-year-old conservation officer who had stopped to help RCMP divert traffic Friday evening around an earlier crash on Highway 11, south of Saskatoon.

RCMP say that Taypotat hit Justin Knackstedt while the young man was trying to control traffic around the accident scene. He had been driving to Blackstrap when he and a colleague stopped to help. He was at the north edge of the scene when he was fatally struck.

Taypotat then kept driving, until he rolled his SUV.

Taypotat will return to court June 17 for a bail hearing. Speaking outside court, his lawyer described him as "remorseful." He is also facing another impaired driving charge from Regina, and an assault charge from Broadview.

Family friends of Knackstedt, and a colleague in uniform, were also in court.Brenda Hartley was asked how the young man's family are dealing with what happened.

"Not very well," she said.

"It makes me really angry because he was already stopped and it shouldn't have happened. He has ruined so many lives."