The parents of a young Kelowna man are expressing anger at a recent decision not to pursue criminal charges related to a crash that left their son and another young man with life-altering injuries and a third dead.
“I have no words, it’s disgusting,” said Kelley Waterhouse.
Owen Waterhouse, 21, suffered a severe brain injury when his Volkswagen Jetta was slammed into from behind in Kamloops on Nov. 29, 2023.
“His truck landed on top of my son’s car,” Kelley Waterhouse said. “They are going to give someone a ticket after he destroyed three lives.”
The car was carrying three members of the men’s volleyball team from Thompson Rivers University.
One of them, Owyn McInnis, was killed while Riley Brinnen suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury.
He spent six long months in hospital, during which his parents were told he may not make it.
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“He has had to learn how to walk again, how to talk again, he’s had to learn how to everything again, I can hold up an apple sometimes and he won’t know it is an apple,” Kelley Waterhouse said.
One year later, the young man is making progress but he cannot be left alone and requires therapy almost every day.
“Monday through Saturday and Sunday is probably the only day we take off,” said Owen’s dad Rick Waterhouse.
The families of all three men are calling on the case to be reviewed but in a statement to Global News, the BC Prosecution Service stated ‘Pursuant to our guidelines, to proceed with a prosecution, Crown Counsel must be satisfied there is a substantial likelihood of conviction and that the public interest requires a prosecution.’
The statement went on to say “Crown counsel has reviewed the entire investigative file, and the applicable law, and made an objective assessment of the evidence, as we are obligated to do.”
While B.C. Prosecution is an independent body, B.C.’s attorney general has promised to look into the case.
“It’s a tragedy. No parent wants that to happen and the consequences of it, you know somebody should face consequences for those actions,” Niki Sharma told Global News.
“The decisions of the B.C. Prosecution Service are independent and I’m looking at the case.”
Police did say the driver of the Dodge Ram truck, Colval Abbinett, was driving erratically prior to the fatal crash, taking out trees and driving on the sidewalk .
The families have started a letter writing campaign, desperately hoping a review of the case leads to criminal charges.
“The three boys are worth it, they are worth a review,” Kelley Waterhouse said. “They’ve all lost so so much.”
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