A $1,000 fine and a 20-month driving prohibition – that’s the sentence a 47-year-old Burnaby man was given for his role in a fatal crash in 2011.
The Burnaby resident, who was in court Wednesday afternoon for his sentencing hearing, plead guilty to one count of driving without due care and attention, a charge under the Motor Vehicle Act.
The charge stems from a collision that happened on April 19, 2011, when the cement truck Mohammad Abdolmalekpoor was driving ran a red light at Holmes Street and East Columbia, striking a compact car travelling east on Columbia Street, sending it through the cement barrier at the bottom of Holmes Street and into Hume Park below. The driver, 26-year-old Mark Holmes, died at the scene.
Tracy Demears, Holmes’ mother-in-law, attended the sentencing hearing with her daughter Kim, Holmes’ sister-in-law.
After it was announced, she told the Record she wasn’t surprised.
“The prosecutor dropped the ball,” she said. “It was like postponement after postponement, that’s why he’s pleaded out, it’s got nothing to do with him coming forward and saying, ‘Yes, I’m guilty.’”
Demears worked with Holmes at Accurate Lock, Safe & Alarm Co. in New Westminster. On the day of the crash, Holmes dropped her off at work before heading home to Coquitlam to pick up his wife and infant son for a doctor’s appointment.
Demears told the Record she often replays that day over and over in her head, wondering if Holmes would still be alive had she done something differently.
“You spend all day wondering, ‘What if I kept him there five more seconds? What if somebody downstairs wanted him?’ Or you know, just, ‘What if?’” she said.
Holmes’ wife Jennifer and their son Jackson, who is four years old now, live in Maple Ridge. Demears said the whole experience is one that will live with the family forever.
“It never goes away. Your life is forever changed, forever changed. Jackson’s going to grow and we can tell him that we fought for his dad but the justice system let him down,” she said.
In a victim impact statement submitted by Holmes’ mother and four siblings, the 26-year-old was described as a happy, caring, smart young man.
“(Mark) was quick with a smile and even quicker to make someone else smile,” read the statement.
The statement noted that everyone in the family has been traumatized by the experience and it has left a melancholy cloud over them all.
“None of us will ever be truly happy again, how could we?”
In 2012, following an in-depth investigation by New Westminster police, Abdolmalekpoor was charged with several motor vehicle infractions, including failing to ensure his vehicle was in safe operating condition; operating a vehicle without effective service brakes; driving without due care and attention; and driving without reasonable consideration, as well as dangerous driving causing death, a charge under the Criminal Act.
Earlier this year, however, Crown counsel announced an agreement had been reached with the defence moving the case from the Supreme Court to Provincial Court as long as Abdolmalekpoor plead guilty to the charge of driving without due care and attention.
On Wednesday, Crown and defence counsel presented a joint submission at the sentencing hearing. The submission noted Abdolmalekpoor had about two years’ experience driving a cement truck and nearly a decade driving commercial vehicles. On the day of the crash, he was carrying wet cement from Burnaby to Coquitlam and was on his second trip when the truck collided with Holmes’ vehicle.
Crown counsel noted that instead of turning right onto McBride Boulevard and 10th Avenue, Abdolmalekpoor continued east on 10th Avenue, which past Cariboo Road turns into Holmes Street. Holmes is a residential street with a steep grade and it was concluded during the preliminary hearing that Abdolmalekpoor started his decent in too high of a gear to engage the air brakes, causing them to fail and the truck to speed through the red light.
But, Crown added, up until this point Abdolmalekpoor had a good driving record and was considered a good employee by his coworkers.
“This is a one off situation, and certainly out of character,” the defence added. “He ended up, as a result, with relatively serious physical problems and very serious mental health problems.”
The presiding judge agreed, and told the court it was clear Abdolmalekpoor was remorseful for his actions. She also noted that Crown and defence counsel were right in submitting a sentence that would include a fine and a driving prohibition.
“I realize it will be of no consolation to the family,” she noted in her report.
Abdolmalekpoor is expected to pay the $1,000 fine over a six-month period.
