A young man has been sentenced to three years in prison after drinking at a house party then losing control of his SUV and killing two 18-year-old classmates walking on the University of B.C.’s sprawling campus.
But the family of one of the two victims is livid that Crown prosecutors agreed to drop two initial charges of impaired driving causing death in favour of accepting a plea deal for the two lesser charges of reckless driving causing death for Tim Goerner, a 23-year-old dual Australian-German citizen who studied chemical engineering at UBC.
Debbie O’Day-Smith, the mother of Mississauga teen Evan Smith, on Tuesday told reporters outside Richmond Provincial Court that her family appreciated the challenge Justice Glenn Lee issued to the man who admitted killing her son: to speak to other young people about his horrible choice to drink and drive once he gets out of prison.
Ms. O’Day-Smith said her family is disappointed, however, that prosecutors could not get Mr. Goerner to accept guilt for driving while under the influence.
“I believe Tim Goerner should have pleaded guilty to that charge because that is the right thing to do,” she said. “Any apology outside of that is merely lip service. I feel the criminal legal system, as it is, skews too heavily toward the rights of the accused, leaving the victims in the dust.”
Court hears from family of two UBC students killed by man who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving
The court heard the appropriate range of punishment for reckless driving causing death was 18 months to six years in prison for a crime of this gravity, according to previous judgments.
Mr. Goerner was speeding up to three times the limit on a stretch of road on the outer edge of campus around 1:40 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2021, when he lost control of his vehicle and jumped the curb to run over Mr. Smith and Emily Selwood. The pair were walking to a dorm during the first month of their studies.
Mr. Goerner had been drinking at a house party in Vancouver before returning to his residence in his used BMW SUV, which he had purchased three weeks before, according to the agreed statement of facts.
Shortly after the collision, Mr. Goerner was taken to Vancouver General Hospital, where he had blood taken and was found to have alcohol in his system, according to the decision read aloud by the judge.
“Despite driving to the party that night, he chose to consume alcohol that evening then chose to drive back to his residence,” Justice Lee said Tuesday.
Witnesses told police that after Mr. Goerner’s vehicle flipped and came to a stop against another car, he ran up to Ms. Selwood and held her hand as a bystander performed first aid. Another witness said, according to the statement read in court, that Mr. Goerner showed immediate regret and asked others to go check for another victim.
The judge said witness testimony and statements from friends and family indicate that Mr. Goerner has never ran from accepting responsibility for the deaths of the two teens. Justice Lee added that he accepted the opinion that Mr. Goerner was a “very low risk to reoffend” made by a clinical forensic psychologist, who was hired by Mr. Goerner’s family to help him treat suicidal ideation and major depression in the aftermath of the incident.
Justice Lee told the families and friends of Mr. Smith and Ms. Selwood, a caring and ebullient Victoria teen, that he appreciated their attempts on Monday to describe their ineffable loss. He also took several minutes to address Mr. Goerner directly, telling him that he accepted his remorse as genuine.
“You will be spending some time in custody, it will likely be quite difficult, particularly given your background and not ever having spent a day in custody,” the judge told Mr. Goerner, a temporary resident who will likely be deported once he is released from prison.
“You can and do have the ability to put your life back together. You do have that chance, Emily Selwood and Evan Smith do not.”