Deadly impaired driver faces prison
REGINA — “None of us wish to be judged by the worst seven minutes of our behaviour,” defence lawyer Bob Hrycan remarked during a sentencing hearing in Court of Queen’s Bench Friday.
That is the task facing Queen’s Bench Justice Catherine Dawson in the case of Hrycan’s client, Maninder Pal Kang, who caused a highspeed collision that killed one person and seriously injured two others in 2007.
Kang, 25, was found guilty last month of a number of charges related to the crash, which claimed the life of Sukhminder Singh Khuber — known to friends and family as Lucky — and left two teen girls with serious head injuries. All three were passengers in the car Kang was driving when he ran into the back of a semi after speeding down Victoria Avenue in Regina.
It was estimated Kang had been driving 35 kilometres per hour above the 70 km/h posted speed limit in the moments before he struck the semi, which was stopped at a traffic light at the Fleet Street intersection.
Kang left the scene, continuing on for a few minutes before stopping his father’s battered car and calling 911 — at which time he tried to avoid responsibility by telling the operator he’d just found his stolen vehicle with the injured people inside.
When his ruse was discovered and he was taken to the police station, Kang refused to provide a breath sample. He later admitted being the driver. His trial, which took place years later, focused largely on whether he was impaired at the time.
While Kang testified at his trial that he didn’t believe he was impaired, Dawson found otherwise, convicting him of impaired driving causing death and bodily harm, as well as leaving the scene and refusing to provide a breath sample.
After sentencing arguments were completed Friday, Kang addressed family members of Khuber and one of the two injured girls.
“I’m sorry for your brother’s death,” he told Khuber’s brother. “If there was anything I could have done, I would have did differently that night, but I can’t do anything to change that.”
To the girl’s family, he said, “I am extremely sorry for what happened that night and the pain your family had to go through ... I was a young, naive kid back then.”
While Hrycan and Crown prosecutor Dana Brûlé debated the extent of Kang’s remorse, they agreed Kang will face a prison term when Dawson delivers her decision on April 11.
Although he showed little emotion throughout much of the trial, he wept heavily on Friday when his lawyer spoke about his family, his youth and his future behind bars. Hrycan said Kang comes from a very supportive family. His parents moved to Canada from India to make a better life.
Hrycan asked the court to consider a sentence in the range of 27 months — a far cry from the seven years or more advanced by the Crown.
Brûlé noted impaired driving is a “pressing problem” on Saskatchewan roadways.
Brûlé submitted a number of victim impact statements that expressed sorrow about Khuber and the pain suffered by the girls and their families after the crash. One girl wrote that she continues to deal with painful physical reminders of that night.
“I still think about it every day of my life,” she wrote.