2 years less a day for Kanata Five hit and run
Posted Jan 9, 2012 10:00:10 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – A Kanata man has been sentenced to two years less a day in an Ottawa courtroom for the 2009 hit and run that left five cyclists seriously injured.
47-year-old Sommit Luangpakham was found guilty on Oct. 20 of five counts each of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and leaving the scene of an accident.
Luangpakham’s lawyer Richard Addelman was asking for a sentence of 12-18 months and said his client fell asleep at the wheel when he struck five cyclists who were biking in the designated lane on March Road.
The Crown was asking for a four-year sentence.
The sentencing hearing in the final journey for the cyclists still struggling to come to terms with the accident.
On Friday, victim impact statements were made in court. The victims described how the accident have impacted their lives.
According to the Ottawa Sun one of the victims read the following statement after leaving the courthouse: “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 criminal negligence of one man. A man who has not shown any remorse for his reactions, and whom gambled his life and the lives of others by wrecklessly getting behind the wheel that morning, and then fleeing the scene and attempting to escape accountability for his criminal negligence,” said Mark White
Other victims read statements describing how the accident had affected their lives from physical to mental damage.
Patricia Buchanan the mother of the victim who has been described as the most seriously injured said “It doesn’t matter what the sentence is, the outcome for my son or the others, the injuries still remain the same,” according to the Ottawa Citizen.
Luangpakham’s wife made also made an emotional plea to the court on Friday and apologized to the victims. She said her husband is very sorry for what he did.
