Driver in Kanata 5 case found guilty
Posted Oct 20, 2011 10:50:11 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An Ottawa jury has found 47-year-old Sommit Luangpakham guilty on all charges in the Kanata 5 case.
He was charged with five counts each of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and failing to remain at the scene of the collision.
Luangpakham hit five cyclists on March Road in Kanata in 2009.
He testified that he didn’t have a drop to drink and must have fallen asleep at the wheel and didn’t notice the blood from the three cyclists that stained his fan.
Luangpakham showed little emotion in court, but the cyclists say they are happy it’s over.
“Attending the trial has lifted a great weight from my heart, that my family and I have been bearing since my friends and I were struck down by the criminal negligence of one man,” says Mark White, one of the cyclists. “A man who has not shown any remorse for his actions.”
Cathy Anderson is the only cyclist who can actually remember being hit. She says she is confident in the juries decision, but that it’s hard to describe how she is feeling.
“I’m relieved, I’m anxious, I’m still nervous,” she says. “Very heightened with respect to the outcome because I really was unsure about how things were going to turn out.”
She says the decision is a form of closure and a big step in recovery.
Luangpakham will remain out on bail until the sentencing hearing on January 6th.
