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A commercial truck driver who lost control of his southbound big rig on Perth Road north of Kingston three years ago and crashed into a motorcycle driven 30-year-old Master Cpl. Ryan (Alex) New, killing him, has been sentenced to two years less one day in provincial jail and prohibited for five years from driving in Canada.
Harjant Singh, 36, was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service in the first 18 months of a two-year probation following jail. Superior Court Justice Gary Tranmer recommended, in accord with the wishes of the victim’s father, that those hours be performed to the benefit of Canadian Forces members or veterans, for example at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Singh, from the Brampton area, was convicted in April on a single count of dangerous driving causing New’s death.
The judge heard, however, that following the impact with New’s Honda motorcycle on May 30, 2015, Singh’s 18-wheeler also clipped a northbound Lexus SUV carrying a family of three.
The occupants all emerged uninjured, but the SUV was flipped on its side and pushed up against the guard rail where, its driver testified, a rear wheel that was snagged on one of the guard rail cables was all that prevented it from rolling into the ravine below.
Singh’s truck, meanwhile, having crossed both lanes after failing to negotiate the final bend in a long S-curve, about 6.3 kilometres south of Bedford Mills near Roushorn Road, plunged over the side almost 70 metres down an embankment. But he, too, was uninjured.
New was part of a group of riders en route to a charity poker run in Perth.
Defence lawyer Stephen Whitzman urged a sentence of six months less one day, three years of probation — the maximum allowed — and 240 hours of community service, also the maximum, coupled with a three-year driving prohibition.
Whitzman told the judge that his client, who was born in India, is not a Canadian citizen, and faced possible deportation if convicted. If the sentence is less than six months, however, he said Singh could appeal a deportation order and stay in Canada with his wife and family.
He noted that his client has no prior criminal record and “he did not set out to hurt anybody.” The crime of which he’s been convicted, Whitzman argued, is a crime of negligence: “It was just bad driving.”
His client, he suggested, “was a licensed truck driver, but he was not an experienced truck driver.”
Assistant Crown attorney Elisabeth Foxton sought a prison sentence of three to four years in prison and recommended a seven-year driving ban for Singh.
“It’s imperative we hold our professional drivers to a high standard,” she told Justice Tranmer.
The bulk of her submission, however, focused on the devastating human cost of Singh’s crime.
She read the judge an email the victim’s heartbroken father, Ken New, explaining why he, his wife and daughter weren’t up to the ordeal of attending Singh’s sentencing hearing.
“Words cannot express the impact this has had on our family,” he wrote.
In a victim’s impact statement he said he and his wife, Karen New operated their own businesses before their son’s death. Karen New had to shut down hers last September, unable to deal with the emotional burden.
Her husband said his own business “is in ruins.” He’s had to remortgage their home, take out loans and “hire people to do what I can no longer do,” he wrote. “In the midst of this destruction, I have only memories of what I once was.”
Before his son’s death, he wrote, he had “the perfect life,” but “it now feels like a dream that has been shattered and ripped away from me.”
Karen New told the judge in her impact statement that her life changed at 7 p.m. on May 30, 2015, when she received a phone call from an OPP officer in Perth.
He told her that her son had been killed earlier that day, around noon, and she wrote that she thought at first it was an unfunny joke. Then she wondered why he was calling her hours after it had happened; whether her child had suffered: and “what could I have done?”
Her husband wasn’t home when the call came and, in shock and grief, it fell to her and her daughter to tell him that their son was dead.
Justice Tranmer observed that dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death “is a very serious offence and this case demonstrates why that is so.”
He noted that Ryan New’s father, in his comments to the author of Singh’s pre-sentence report, said he doesn’t believe the trucker set out to kill his son and also “does not believe a custodial term will do anything.”
The judge said New senior would rather see Singh contribute time to help wounded soldiers.
Justice Tranmer observed, however, that denunciation, deterrence and protection of the public are key sentencing principles in Singh’s case. “Every week we hear of fatal motor vehicle accidents, usually involving commercial vehicles.”
syanagisawa@postmedia.com
查看原文...
Harjant Singh, 36, was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service in the first 18 months of a two-year probation following jail. Superior Court Justice Gary Tranmer recommended, in accord with the wishes of the victim’s father, that those hours be performed to the benefit of Canadian Forces members or veterans, for example at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Singh, from the Brampton area, was convicted in April on a single count of dangerous driving causing New’s death.
The judge heard, however, that following the impact with New’s Honda motorcycle on May 30, 2015, Singh’s 18-wheeler also clipped a northbound Lexus SUV carrying a family of three.
The occupants all emerged uninjured, but the SUV was flipped on its side and pushed up against the guard rail where, its driver testified, a rear wheel that was snagged on one of the guard rail cables was all that prevented it from rolling into the ravine below.
Singh’s truck, meanwhile, having crossed both lanes after failing to negotiate the final bend in a long S-curve, about 6.3 kilometres south of Bedford Mills near Roushorn Road, plunged over the side almost 70 metres down an embankment. But he, too, was uninjured.
New was part of a group of riders en route to a charity poker run in Perth.
Defence lawyer Stephen Whitzman urged a sentence of six months less one day, three years of probation — the maximum allowed — and 240 hours of community service, also the maximum, coupled with a three-year driving prohibition.
Whitzman told the judge that his client, who was born in India, is not a Canadian citizen, and faced possible deportation if convicted. If the sentence is less than six months, however, he said Singh could appeal a deportation order and stay in Canada with his wife and family.
He noted that his client has no prior criminal record and “he did not set out to hurt anybody.” The crime of which he’s been convicted, Whitzman argued, is a crime of negligence: “It was just bad driving.”
His client, he suggested, “was a licensed truck driver, but he was not an experienced truck driver.”
Assistant Crown attorney Elisabeth Foxton sought a prison sentence of three to four years in prison and recommended a seven-year driving ban for Singh.
“It’s imperative we hold our professional drivers to a high standard,” she told Justice Tranmer.
The bulk of her submission, however, focused on the devastating human cost of Singh’s crime.
She read the judge an email the victim’s heartbroken father, Ken New, explaining why he, his wife and daughter weren’t up to the ordeal of attending Singh’s sentencing hearing.
“Words cannot express the impact this has had on our family,” he wrote.
In a victim’s impact statement he said he and his wife, Karen New operated their own businesses before their son’s death. Karen New had to shut down hers last September, unable to deal with the emotional burden.
Her husband said his own business “is in ruins.” He’s had to remortgage their home, take out loans and “hire people to do what I can no longer do,” he wrote. “In the midst of this destruction, I have only memories of what I once was.”
Before his son’s death, he wrote, he had “the perfect life,” but “it now feels like a dream that has been shattered and ripped away from me.”
Karen New told the judge in her impact statement that her life changed at 7 p.m. on May 30, 2015, when she received a phone call from an OPP officer in Perth.
He told her that her son had been killed earlier that day, around noon, and she wrote that she thought at first it was an unfunny joke. Then she wondered why he was calling her hours after it had happened; whether her child had suffered: and “what could I have done?”
Her husband wasn’t home when the call came and, in shock and grief, it fell to her and her daughter to tell him that their son was dead.
Justice Tranmer observed that dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death “is a very serious offence and this case demonstrates why that is so.”
He noted that Ryan New’s father, in his comments to the author of Singh’s pre-sentence report, said he doesn’t believe the trucker set out to kill his son and also “does not believe a custodial term will do anything.”
The judge said New senior would rather see Singh contribute time to help wounded soldiers.
Justice Tranmer observed, however, that denunciation, deterrence and protection of the public are key sentencing principles in Singh’s case. “Every week we hear of fatal motor vehicle accidents, usually involving commercial vehicles.”
syanagisawa@postmedia.com
查看原文...
