The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld a judge's not guilty decision for a man who was drunk when he struck and killed one woman and seriously injured another while behind the wheel of a pickup truck.
In a decision issued this week, the Court of Appeal agreed with B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Truscott that regardless of his condition, Martin Williams Michael Gentles simply did not have the time to avoid hitting the two.
"There is no question Mr. Gentles was impaired, but the finding that one and a half seconds was insufficient time to avoid the accident means the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the impairment was a contributing cause to the death and injuries resulting from it," Justice Elizabeth Bennett wrote in the decision.
On April 22, 2012, Rayel MacDonald and Alysha Mullet were walking home from a dance in Williams Lake when, at about 2 a.m., they crossed Carson Avenue. MacDonald was killed instantly and Mullet suffered serious injuries.
The two had crossed the street 86.5 metres north of the nearest crosswalk and were struck simultaneously.
Truscott found Gentles' blood-alcohol level was between .19 and .211. While he was found not guilty of drunk driving causing death and drunk driving causing bodily harm, he was found guilty of driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08 under the Criminal Code.
In July 2015, he was subsequently prohibited from driving for one year, sentenced to an eight-month conditional sentence and one year probation and fined $1,500, according to the Williams Lake Tribune.
