Highway deaths still haunt driver

On the night of Oct. 10, 2008, Mirza Saqib Muhammad Balil was on his way from Saskatoon to Calgary in a rented Dodge Durango.

He was 22 years old. He had two friends with him and they were listening to music as Balil drove the SUV west on Highway 7 in the dark.

The speed limit on that stretch of undivided highway is 100 km/h, but Balil was going 143 km/h, using the left-hand lane to pass other drivers during the busy Thanksgiving weekend traffic.

At around 8 p.m., about 10 kilometres east of Rosetown, he tried to get by two cars in a row. Seeing the lights of oncoming traffic ahead, the driver of the first car slowed down as Balil passed, giving him room to get back into the right lane. He ignored that opportunity.

By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late.

The resulting head-on collision killed Ken and Karen Burgess of Swift Current. Their 27-year-old daughter Kendra spent weeks in a coma, months in hospital and continues to live in a Regina care home because of a serious brain injury, internal organ damage and complications from multiple broken bones.

"I feel overwhelmed and angry because I almost died and I lost my parents," Kendra wrote in a victim impact statement filed at Balil’s sentencing Monday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Balil and his passengers were also injured in the crash, though not as seriously. He has physically recovered, but the psychological ramifications have profoundly affected his life by prompting a deep and chronic depression that renders him incapable of working or going to school, defence lawyer Don Mullord told court.

Balil told Justice Duane Koch he has a hard time looking at himself in the mirror each morning.

"I still don’t know how it happened, but still I live with the burden every day. . . . I think I will until I die," he said. "I don’t remember how it happened and I wish I could go back in time and change it."

Following a three-day trial in October, Koch found Balil guilty of two counts of dangerous driving causing death and three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Though he had no previous criminal record, his driving history included multiple convictions for speeding, running red lights and failing to report an accident, Crown prosecutor Tom Macnab noted.

Born in Pakistan, Balil immigrated to Toronto with his family in 2000, court heard. He worked as a cab driver before moving to Saskatoon in the spring of 2008 to "start a new life" after a relationship breakup, Mullord said. Balil was in training for a commercial pilot’s licence when the crash happened about six months later.

"It definitely, obviously, has changed his life," Mullord said.

Under the Criminal Code, the maximum penalty for dangerous driving causing death is 14 years in prison. However, the range of sentences established by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in other cases similar to Balil’s is 18 to 24 months, court heard.

Mullord argued for a six-month jail term, noting alcohol was not a factor in the collision and Balil was not racing or "stunting" at the time. Balil had never driven on a Saskatchewan highway before, Mullord said.

Macnab argued for a jail term of at least 18 months, noting a six-month term would be well below the range set by the higher court.

Koch imposed a 16-month term, citing Balil’s obvious remorse, lack of a prior criminal record and the psychiatric disability he now suffers. He also prohibited Balil from driving for the next three years.

"It strikes me as sad that you’re not able to be employed," he told Balil.