Two years ago, Karla Drew’s life changed forever.
Her son, 22-year-old Evan Archibald, was waiting for the bus at a busy Surrey intersection on the morning of Oct. 7, 2015, when a Jeep plowed into the bus stop. Evan died in hospital a short time later.
For Drew, support came from other parents who had gone through a similar loss of a child.
They got her to where she is today: a place where she can comfortably talk about her son and the impression he left behind.
As she sits with her daughter Chantel on a bench in Surrey Fleetwood Park dedicated to Evan’s memory, his mother admits it wasn’t easy.
“They say the first year is the worst, and that’s an understatement,” Drew said.
“It’s a nightmare: the first anniversary of the death, the birthday, the Christmas, the Thanksgiving. Every occasion, there’s that empty chair sitting at the table now. You never get that back.”
The female driver, who was 17 years old at the time of the crash, plead guilty in September to driving without due care and attention. She was fined $750.
WATCH: Archibald’s family speaks from the scene of the accident in 2015
For Drew, that isn’t nearly enough.
“As a parent, you want a little more justice,” she said.
“But no amount of money will bring him back… You just have to go through the emotions of the day.”
Drew and Archibald agree that harsher penalties need to be in place for careless driving, regardless of age — especially when that carelessness results in death.
“No family should go through what we experienced,” Archibald said. “I’m hoping maybe someday that can all change.”
Drew and Archibald hope B.C. looks toward moves made by the Ontario government.
That province has recently proposed that careless drivers who cause injury or death potentially lose their licence for up to five years, face fines of up to $50,000 and be sentenced to as long as two years in jail.
Upon hearing of Ontario’s proposal in September, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth voiced his support.
“I’m more than willing to look at what Ontario’s doing and see if it could be applied here in B.C.,” Farnworth said.
WATCH: A 22-year-old man waiting for a bus to go to work was killed when a 17-year-old driver lost control and crashed into a bus stop. Jill Bennett reports.
Drew said she was grateful the driver’s guilty plea meant the family did not have to go through a trial, and that she appreciated a letter of apology the driver sent to them.
But the pain remains.
“There are no winners,” Drew said. “How do you forgive someone for killing your son?
“But you have to have a little bit of forgiveness, because it was an accident, and we have to remember that.”
With files from Kristen Robinson
WATCH: A man who made child safety his mission after his son was killled in a car accident, has suffered a second tragedy. As Jennifer Palma reports, his stepson was killed in a crash at a Surrey bus stop.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Chantel Archibald’s name as Chantelle. We have corrected the spelling and we regret the error.
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