A teenager who crashed a BMW SUV while driving 190 km/h, causing the deaths of her sister and a friend, was sentenced Tuesday during an emotional hearing that saw many in the courtroom, including the judge and lawyers, struggle to contain their emotions.
The girl, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident, will spend two years on probation under conditions that include community service. She is also prohibited from driving for five years.
Court heard that four teens were in the car the night of the fatal rollover: the two sisters and two friends.
Now 19, the driver can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because she was a youth at the time of the incident. For that reason, none of the victims can be identified.
Judge calls it a ‘tragedy’
On Tuesday, dozens of people gathered in a Calgary courtroom for the girl’s sentencing hearing after she pleaded guilty last December to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing injury.
Ten victim impact statements were read aloud — including ones written by the sisters’ father, the surviving friend, and the parents of the friend who was killed.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Indra Maharaj accepted the joint submission from prosecutor Ron Simenik and defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli and called the situation a “tragedy.”
“No one could be unmoved by the statements made today,” said the judge, her voice shaking.
“I am also human.”
190 km/h in an 80 km/h zone
On the night of the crash, the four teenage girls were in the SUV: the 16-year-old driver, her 17-year-old sister and two friends who were also 17 years old.
Details of the incident come from an agreed statement of facts filed as part of the driver’s guilty plea.
On July 14, 2021, the Springbank teenagers were at a field party in Calgary’s northwest.
Originally, the older sister drove the group to the party, but she had drinks. So a decision was made for the 16-year-old to drive everyone home.
The younger teen did not have her licence.
Victim thrown 85 metres
The group was travelling on Range Road 32 — where the speed limit is 80 km/h — just after midnight.
A Snapchat video taken from inside the vehicle moments before the crash shows the SUV was travelling at over 190 km/h.
Around 12:30 a.m., the teen lost control of the SUV and the car flew off the road, into a ditch, rolling several times before coming to rest in a field.
One of the friends, who was in the backseat and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the back of the BMW and died instantly.
Her body was found 85 metres from the vehicle.
Life-altering injuries
The driver’s older sister, who was also not wearing a seatbelt, was also ejected and died at the scene.
The front passenger, another friend, was airlifted to hospital.
After learning of the accident, that victim’s mother showed up at the scene, where an RCMP officer told her that her daughter was dead. She drove herself home where, hours later, she learned her daughter had survived and was in hospital.
When the mother arrived, her daughter was so badly injured she could only recognize her from her nose piercing.
“She hung on, her body lifeless in a coma, fighting for her life,” said the mother in a victim impact statement.
‘Fighting for her life’
Court heard the passenger suffered fractured vertebrae, spinal bleed, traumatic brain injury, collapsed lung, fractured sternum and two compound fractures in her arm.
That victim suffered life-altering injuries.
After the rollover, the injured teen spent a week in a coma and nearly six months in hospital, “fighting for her life,” as her mother described.
During those months she was recovering in hospital, the sisters’ father hosted monthly fireworks parties at the family’s home to honour his daughter who had died. But those close to the other victims weren’t invited, according to several people who wrote statements.
Snapchat video surfaces
Around the same time, the sisters’ family told friends, acquaintances and members of their community that the BMW SUV had malfunctioned and caused the crash, according to the surviving victim.
When she was finally able to return to school, she described being shunned, bullied and excluded by her former friends and other classmates.
It wasn’t until months after the fatal accident that the Snapchat video surfaced showing the driver’s excessive speed.
The judge heard on Tuesday that neither of the surviving teens have any memory from the incident or the lead-up.
The teenage driver was charged 18 months after the rollover.
‘A dark struggle’
At graduation, the injured teen was told by friends of the driver she wasn’t welcome on the bus that took the students for photos and she wasn’t welcome at the grad party
“She went with her parents while her peer group went together,” said her mother in court. “It’s been a dark struggle.”
The family of the other girl who died submitted a victim impact statement that also described a “community torn apart” by the crash and its aftermath.
They expressed that the driver made a mistake, broke the law and “must acknowledge wrongdoing.”
“Somewhere in all of the pain we must find a way to heal,” wrote the parents of the 17-year-old.
“We just want the truth to be told, the mistakes to be acknowledged; the gravity of this loss must not go in vain.”
Prosecutor Simenik said the teen has “clearly been devastated by her actions.”
When given the chance to address the court, the driver expressed regret and remorse and apologized to each victim individually.
“I hope to make it very clear, I take accountability and will forever be regretful of the actions that night,” she said.
“The word ‘sorry’ is nowhere near sufficient but I hope you know I am; I am sorry that I failed.”