WARNING: This story includes disturbing content that may not be suitable for all.
A Mission B.C. man has received 15 months in jail and two years probation after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving that left Maple Ridge mother of four Kelly Sandoval dead.
Travis Pare also received five years driving prohibition, of which he has completed three so he has two years left when he is released from jail.
The chaotic incident took place on Feb. 1, 2018 as Kelly, her husband Eduardo and their four children were in the 23900 block of Dewdney Trunk Road in Maple Ridge.
The court heard that when a man knocked on the Sandovals’ vehicle window saying his brother was “dying,” Eduardo rushed to help.
As Eduardo saw Pare frothing at the mouth, clenching his jaw and lying on his side in a black pickup truck, Kelly called 911, the court heard.
What happened next was captured in a disturbing video submitted as evidence in the case. After learning police were on the way, Pare backed his truck up, hitting two parked vehicles, before surging forward through a McDonald’s drive-thru and through a fence, and then crashing into a bus shelter.
The Sandovals’ 10-year-old son Donte was able to jump out of the way, but the truck struck Kelly as she threw herself in front of her five-year-old son Emmitt.
The initial collision is not what killed Kelly Sandoval, according to a coroner’s report. She was discharged from Royal Columbian Hospital with crutches after being diagnosed with a forehead laceration and soft tissue injuries to her right thigh.
But six weeks later she was admitted to Abbotsford Regional Hospital for multiple complications including pain, swelling, blood clots and a bacterial infection.
On March 19, she died. A post-mortem examination later revealed multiple blood clots in her lungs, and her cause of death was listed as “multiple complications of blunt force trauma due to a motor vehicle incident.”
Pare was initially facing four charges — criminal negligence causing death, impaired driving causing death and two counts of failing to stop at an accident — but pleaded guilty to the single lesser charge.
The Crown was seeking a jail term of 18 to 24 months along with two years of probation and a five-year driving ban, while the defence was seeking a conditional sentence of two years, less a day, to be served in the community.