B.C. family angry as driver gets conditional sentence in crash that killed 30-year-old

A man has been handed a conditional sentence for two years less a day after he was involved in an accident in Coquitlam, B.C., in August 2020.

Ryan Stayner was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death after his truck crashed on the westbound off-ramp to Highway 1 on Brunette Avenue on the evening of Aug. 16.

Kathryn Hill, a 30-year-old woman from Surrey, was Stayner’s passenger.

She died from her injuries days after the accident.

“We were surprised to see a sentence of two years less a day of jail time served in the community and one-year probation,” Hill’s sister, Stephanie Swift, told Global BC outside court.

“It’s very hard to walk out of the courtroom and see Ryan Stayner go home with his family and we don’t get to do that.”

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Swift said she is angry about what happened.

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“I feel like the justice system has failed,” she said.

“I’m upset. And I don’t feel that any type of justice has really been served. He gets to go home and go to work every day and, you know, see his family. Again, we were robbed of that. I didn’t feel that that was an apology at all. I didn’t see any remorse. I expected to see a lot more remorse than that. He really didn’t speak to us.”

Swift said her sister Kathryn had a “bubbly, spicy personality” and they miss her so much.

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Kathyrn’s mother, Kelly Hill, said this whole experience has been gut-wrenching and her heart now feels incomplete.

They said they did not know how Stayner and Kathryn knew each other, what their relationship was, or where they were going that night.

“She was a very beautiful, loving, kind person,” Kelly said. “And it’s bittersweet, like I said, to watch her peers grow, travel and have families. And her life is cut short.”

She added that she would have liked to hear some remorse and some heartfelt words from Stayner.

“Justice seems to be for the guilty and not the victims.”

Following his conditional sentence, Stayner will be on probation for one year and is prohibited from driving for two years, less one day.

The BC Prosecution Service said this was a joint submission between Crown and Stayner’s lawyer.