A Hamilton Township, Ont., man has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in an August 2021 collision south of Peterborough that claimed the life of one man and seriously injured two others.
The Aug. 6 collision between a car and pickup truck on County Road 28 claimed the life of 19-year-old Neil Henley of Roseneath, Ont., while three other passengers were injured, two of them sent to a Toronto hospital with serious injuries.
The investigation led to charges against the driver of the car, Hunter Smith, who was 19 at the time. In court in October 2022, he pleaded guilty to operating a conveyance causing death, three counts of operating a conveyance causing bodily harm, operating a motor vehicle or vessel while being pursued by a peace officer, and failure to stop the motor vehicle or vessel as soon as was reasonable in the circumstances.
An agreed statement of facts states a southbound car with five occupants on County Road 28 was travelling 162 km/h when the 20-year-old driver attempted to pass a pickup truck that had slowed to make a left turn. The two vehicles collided.
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Henley was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit also cleared a Peterborough Police Service officer who was conducting radar patrol at the time and attempted a short pursuit of the car but the vehicle went “out of sight.” The officer clocked the vehicle travelling 100 km/h in an 80 km/h zone and came upon the collision a short time later.
According to The Peterborough Examiner, in court on Tuesday, Smith was sentenced to six years in a federal prison. The judge say Smith’s “foolishness and poor judgment” ruined lives and that the collision was “completely avoidable.”
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