After learning the person responsible for the fatalities will not serve any jail time, family and friends of three people who were killed in a 2018 car accident are speaking out.
Allison Coles, Wendy Ho and Walter Rose were killed in an accident near Port Perry in October 2018.
Brock Adamson was charged and convicted of three counts of careless driving causing death under the Highway Traffic Act. He also pleaded guilty to a fourth count of careless driving causing bodily harm in relation to a fourth passenger that survived the crash.
Adamson was fined $20,000 on each count, including a victim fine surcharge, which amounts to an extra $5,000 per count. He is facing a one-year licence suspension and no jail time.
The driver is well-known to the people of Port Perry and the community of Goodwood. He is the CEO of Adamson Systems Engineering, an audio tech company.
Global News did not get a response from Adamson after requesting comment.
As for family, the sentence was upsetting.
“Driving is a privilege, and I feel that privilege should’ve been taken away,” said Megan Coles, Allison’s sister.
Sevag Yeghoyan, an Oshawa-based attorney, says with non-criminal cases, sentencing can be complicated.
“Careless driving causing death is an offence under the Highway Traffic Act. It’s not a criminal offence. As a result, since there’s no principles of sentencing,” he said.
“It’s hard to articulate what the right sentence is.”
For family and friends, the memories of their loved ones are all that remain.
“Walter was a super gentle soul. He was from Newfoundland and that really was the person he was — that really homey, down-east type of person,” said Heather McIntyre, a close friend of the victims.
“Wendy was just a really good person. You became her family once you became her friend.”
McIntyre describes the couple’s kitchen table, which sat 25 people, saying Wendy would constantly be hosting company.
The couple lived on a farm in Scugog. They leave behind their son, Michael, who was 17 at the time of the accident.
Allison Coles was known to her family and friends as a free spirit and someone who could light up a room with her sense of humour.
She and her sister, Megan, were extremely close, having lived all but two years in the same household.
“She was my everything. She was my best friend. She was my confidant,” Megan said.
“She was the person who would say, ‘It’s okay, I’m here and I will help you.'”