B.C. prosecutors proceed with motor vehicle charges, not criminal, after fatal crash

VICTORIA — The B.C. Prosecution Service says it will continue to pursue charges under the Motor Vehicle Act against the driver allegedly involved in a crash that killed a university student and hurt two others in Kamloops, B.C., in November 2023.

The service says it conducted a senior-level review of the charge assessment and the evidence supports two charges of driving without due care and attention and driving without reasonable consideration for others, instead of criminal charges.

It says in a statement that the evidence does not support proceeding with Criminal Code charges under the service’s charge assessment standard.

The collision happened at an intersection near the Thompson Rivers University campus, where RCMP said a pickup truck hit several small trees before striking a Volkswagen stopped at a red light, triggering crashes with four other vehicles.

The three people in the Volkswagen, all in their 20s, were taken to hospital, where one of them died and the others were treated for serious injuries.

Thompson Rivers’ athletic director, Curtis Atkinson, later identified the young man who died as a member of the university’s volleyball team.

In its statement issued Friday, the B.C. Prosecution Service says the circumstances of the case are “tragic,” as one young man lost his life and two others were “catastrophically injured.”

“It would not serve the justice system, the victims, nor the public for the Crown to pursue charges that are not supported by the available evidence.”

The statement says only a portion of the evidence has made its way into the public domain, and “the facts reported in the media and shared publicly are too incomplete and present only a partial picture of what had to be considered.”

— with files from CHNL

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024.