Complicated court ruling

Court cases seldom come as tragic as the one involving Andrew Cook. It may seem on the face of it that he got a sweetheart plea deal and got off lucky, but the truth is far more complicated than that.

With utmost respect to the family of Arlene Shepherd, the woman who died as a result of Cook’s actions, no good would have come from sending Cook away to rot in jail.

Cook is a young man with a bright future and has supportive parents. It pains one to imagine what was going through their minds as they watched a sheriff place handcuffs on their son and escort him from the courtroom.

It also pains one to imagine what was going through the minds of Shepherd’s family at the exact same time, knowing the person responsible for her death will be a free man in just 90 days, while they are sentenced to a lifetime of mourning.

While it would have been helpful for the Crown to explain the frailties in its case, we were told that Cook had alcohol in his bloodstream at the time of the crash as a result of heavy drinking the night before.

With that in mind, perhaps the only good that can come from this case is its value as a cautionary tale for those who might not otherwise think twice about getting behind the wheel the morning after a night out.

Police catch a remarkable amount of drunk drivers on their way to work the next morning, so please let this be a lesson.

Cook also has an obligation, as the judge reminded him, to honour his victim by living his own life to the fullest and giving back to society, which he can’t do from behind bars.

And as Cook’s lawyer pointed out, the section of Highway 97 where the crash took place does not have centre barriers that have been installed elsewhere along the route in the Okanagan.

Let the other lesson from this tragedy be the importance of the B.C. Transportation Ministry putting such safety measures in place soon to help prevent more such needless deaths.

Valuable lessons can be learned from tragedy