KELOWNA – A West Kelowna woman was sentenced Thursday for a nighttime hit-and-run incident in November 2014 that killed a pedestrian.
Sharon Marlene Scott, 72, turned left into a downtown Kelowna alley striking a woman on a sidewalk.
Eighty-three year old Julie Gillespie was dragged about nine meters before being run over by the car’s tires.
Scott drove away, saying she did not see Gillespie, and thought the bump of her vehicle was from hitting a pothole or rock.
After a two day trial in January, Scott was convicted of driving without due care and attention under the Motor Vehicle Act.
Judge Ellen Burdett said Scott’s inattentiveness was on the extreme end of the scale.
Burdett did not impose a financial penalty, saying Scott was completely unable to pay a fine as she was fired from her newspaper delivery job at the Daily Courier because of the incident.
She has been unable to find work since and relies on monthly pension payments of $1504.
In accepting Scott’s extreme remorse, the judge suspended sentence for a one year probation period, prohibited Scott from driving for three months and ordered 20 hours of community work service.
Afterward, Scott acknowledged the leniency of the sentence saying it could have been much worse.
She also apologized for all the grief she caused Gillespie’s spouse and family.