DRIVER FOUND GUILTY IN FATAL CRASH

Youth Escapes Conviction On Marijuana-Impairment Charge For Accident
That Killed Two Friends

SURREY - A youth convicted Tuesday of three counts of dangerous
driving in a high-speed single-car crash that cost two 16-year-old
boys their lives smirked as he walked out of a Surrey courtroom.

His attitude, and the fact that he still has his driver's licence,
upset the mothers of the two dead boys, who were also disappointed
that the Crown failed to make its case for driving while impaired by
marijuana -- which would have set a national precedent.

"We were hoping that this would be a precedent-setting case and that
the laws would be changed, and need to be changed now," said Helen
Featherstone, whose son Simon died in the April 4, 2002 crash.

"We don't want our sons to have died in vain. We were hoping this
would create a new way to proceed."

Featherstone and Diane Unger, whose son Dayton died in the accident,
stood together at a sad impromptu news conference on the steps of the
Surrey courthouse, reaching for words of compassion for the convicted
youth.

Under the terms of the Young Offenders Act, he can't be named, but he
is well-known to the parents of the boys who died.

"I just think this boy has an awful lot to learn yet," said
Featherstone. "I think he needs some help. He has a quote-unquote bit
of an attitude, and our sons died because of his behaviour, so it's
very hard to see this.

"We'd like to see that he actually takes responsibility for this, and
that's all we can really hope for."

Unger, who described listening to the judgment as "like going through
the funeral all over again," said she is concerned that the driver
still has his licence.

"We both believe that the licence should have been instantly revoked,
immediately -- no question about that," she said. "That was hard for
us to deal with, and that was something we couldn't understand; we
still can't understand it.

"He can still drive, and we see him driving around and it's really,
really tough."

Senior Crown counsel Winston Sayson said the status of the youth's
driving licence will not be reviewed until the sentencing phase of the
trial, which is scheduled for Nov. 29.

Although the Crown succeeded in obtaining convictions on three counts
of dangerous driving -- two causing death and one causing bodily harm
- -- it didn't make its case for driving while impaired by marijuana.

Evidence introduced during the long trial, which concluded in June,
indicated the driver had 144 micrograms per litre of
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, in his
blood. A witness testified that a level of 35 micrograms would affect
a driver's ability.

Despite the extremely high reading, Judge W.G. MacDonald noted that
none of the accident investigators or medical staff who dealt with the
driver noted any indication of marijuana use.

He added that "the Crown's expert witness stated that unless the
accused was in shock (which he was not) he must have smoked marijuana
within one hour prior to the taking of the blood sample. In the case
at bar, it was impossible since the accident occurred two hours before
the taking of the blood sample and the accused was always in the
presence of either police officers or medical personnel during all of
that time."

The judge added there were also questions about the handling of the
blood sample during testing, raising issues about whether the sample
submitted to the court was unquestionably that of the driver.

After the decision, Sayson pointed out that obtaining a conviction for
impairment by marijuana is very difficult under current law.

"There is no legal limit that is stated for the simple reason that
there is no legal limit -- you cannot smoke marijuana, period --
unlike alcohol, where there is a legal limit of .08," he said.
"Parliament can't give us a legal limit for the simple reason that it
is illegal to simply use or possess marijuana."

At the time of the crash, the convicted driver was behind the wheel of
a high-powered 2000 Mustang with a V-8 engine.

According to accident analysis, it was heading north on 264th Street
at a speed estimated between 110 and 140 kilometres an hour in an area
posted for a maximum speed of 60 kilometres an hour when it crossed a
double white line to pass another car close to the crest of a small
hill near 62nd Avenue.

A southbound vehicle came into view less than 30 metres ahead, and the
Mustang driver over-corrected as he tried to get back into the
northbound lane, missing the oncoming vehicle by inches. His car
smashed into a rock, then a tree, and spun several times before coming
to rest in a ditch.

One boy died at the scene, the other the next day in hospital. A third
boy, who was riding in the passenger seat, was seriously injured, but
recovered.

The driver has apologized to the Unger family, but has never spoken to
the Featherstones. Helen Featherstone says she would like to help the
driver.

"I think we all need to heal and I would like to help this boy," she
said. "We've lost a child, we don't have a child in our life and I
would like to see him grow from this experience."

But she stopped short of the concept of closure: "There's no such
thing as closure when you've lost your only child."