During the first phase of a hit-and-run sentencing hearing in provincial court, a B.C. Crown prosecutor suggested impaired drivers have a “strategic incentive” to flee the scene of collisions involving injury or death in our province.
Marcel Genaille’s vehicle was captured on security video speeding and changing lanes before he rear-ended a motorcyclist in a fatal June 19, 2021, collision in Burnaby.
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Criminal lawyer Kyla Lee said sentences for leaving the scene are often higher to reflect the exact points Myhre made in his submissions, and because fleeing prevents the truth from coming out.
“He’s not wrong that there is effectively a strategic incentive to flee the scene in these cases and many people do, especially if they’re concerned perhaps that they’ve consumed alcohol or drugs before driving.”
Lee, who specializes in driving cases at Acumen Law, said a judge is free to impose whatever sentence is fit and it would be unjust to presume someone left the scene because they were committing another offence.
“The law recognizes by leaving available a lower range of sentence that some people, they just panic and they make the wrong decision,” she told Global News in an interview Tuesday.
“They don’t know what to do after an accident.”
