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It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

A couple of drinking buddies left a house party near 94th Street and 179th Avenue shortly after midnight on Saturday, May 12th, 2007 to go look for a friend who had gone in-line skating.

One man got behind the wheel of a Ford Ranger pickup truck while the other probably thought he could better search from the vantage point afforded by sitting on the truck's box cover.

"They were circling the area looking for their friend," Edmonton police staff Sgt. Ted Hrebin explained to the Edmonton Sun.

"It was a rather foolish decision to ride in the bed of a pickup truck," traffic Sgt. Regan James chimed in.

"I have no idea why he was doing that, considering he was the lone passenger and he could've been in the front seat."

The man was sitting against the back window on the truck bed's cover and had nothing to anchor himself to, James said.

It appears he lost his balance as the truck negotiated a slight bend in the road, James added.

The man was launched from the back of the truck, slid across the road, hit the side of a brand new Ford F-150 and landed in the middle of the street.

A 23-year-old man was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later. Police were withholding his name pending notification of next of kin. However, on May 14th the Edmonton Sun carried a story that revealed the man's name as Michael Dar.

"Early indications are that the driver may have been impaired. He's also a 23-year-old male and he's being investigated for impaired driving causing death as we speak," said Acting Insp. Terry Rocchio as the investigation began.

Police charged Joseph Alexander Thomson, 20, with impaired driving causing death, drunk driving and criminal negligence causing death.

It was reported by witnesses the man was riding the back of the pickup "with a beer in his hand."

In the light of day, 20-year-old Huba Jakab told Global Edmonton it was his F-150 that the man slammed into.

"I was at my neighbour's two blocks away – two houses away, I mean – and my buddy says 'There's firefighters, everybody's here.' "

"I run outside and see what's going on."

"When I came out, there was a bunch of young guys crowded around one guy," the man recalled.

"They were freaking out. They were yelling, 'Mike, Mike! Can you hear me, Mike? Talk to me.' "

"He had a beer bottle in his hand and kinda hit my truck too 'cause it's dented in so he probably hurt himself on my truck maybe."

"He must have rammed into the truck with his head. Those kids live around here. I've seen that same truck driving around," Jakab added.

Relatives of the man who died after falling off a truck were angry that he had been portrayed in media reports as a foolish drunk.

The Edmonton Sun seemed to bear the brunt of the criticism as reporter Cary Castagna fielded an interview with the family of 23-year-old Michael Dar.

“He wasn't an idiot. He's a great person,” fumed Dar's older sister, Nancy.

“Everybody loved him. He's the happiest person you could meet. He would help anyone who ever needed help.”

The family told the Sun Michael was a straight-A computer engineering student who had just graduated from NAIT.

71-year-old Howard Dar said his son was a “damn good boy” who excelled in school. He said his computer-savvy son had a job fixing VLT machines.

“I don't think he was drinking,” Howard said. “He was just having fun. The guy asked him to go for a ride. He just jumped up on the back of the box.”

Howard questioned why the driver drove with him on the back. Police and a witness earlier told the Sun that Dar was holding a beer when he was riding in the bed of the truck.

deadmonton 2007 - other police matters - michael dar