A Winnipeg truck driver will not face any jail time after pleading guilty to careless driving causing death in a crash that killed a cyclist nearly two years ago.
Michael Slobodian, 45, was struck and killed while biking to work on the first day of school in September 2016.
The crash happened at the intersection of the Perimeter Highway and St. Anne’s Road.
“Mike embodied a spirit of activity, enthusiasm, insight, humour and togetherness,” his sister Charlene Slobodian Taylor said in a statement.
READ MORE: Community mourns loss of Michael Slobodian, Winnipeg teacher killed in crash
According to police, Slobodian was riding his bike west when a dump truck came to a stop at a red light.
When the light turned green, police said Slobodian’s bike and a dump truck turning right collided.
Slobodian was killed instantly.
Russell Loewen, 59, was the man driving the dump truck.
PHOTO GALLERY: view mages of Michael Slobodian, his family, and the crash site
Global News has learned Loewen pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death in February of this year, nearly 18 months after the crash happened.
“My family has been through turmoil and pain of such intensity that I cannot believe we have made it through,” Slobodian’s wife Bonnie wrote in a victim impact statement submitted to court. “One year and a half later and I still think of all the lives my darling Michael will not touch ever again. He was everything to us. Everything.”
But, like many similar cases investigated by Global News, Loewen will not face any jail time.
READ MORE: Global News investigation finds cycling fatalities often end with fine, no jail time for drivers
Instead, a judge handed the 59-year-old a six month driving suspension and a $3,000 fine.
“I am hoping that you are able to see how your careless driving action has cost us our most beloved Michael, my husband and the father of three teen daughters. We had everything in life… You changed all of that,” Bonnie Slobodian wrote. “I hope you really reflect on this and that you don’t just blink at a world of lives shattered by losing Michael, who had every right to be on his bike passing through that intersection on his way to seeing his students on that first day of school.”