Fine issued to North Okanagan driver who caused fatal crash
The sister of man killed in a fatal car crash outside Salmon Arm 18 months ago said her family bears no ill will against the other driver.
Crown prosecutor Danika Haighes read out the statement from Kenneth Prebble’s sister at the Salmon Arm courthouse Thursday, May 29 saying she recognized driving errors happened and her family hoped the other driver, Ryan Daniel Schultz, could move on.
The crash happened first thing in the morning on Nov. 2, 2023. RCMP didn’t release any information about it at the time.
It was 5 a.m. and Schultz was driving from his home in Armstrong to work in his GMC Sierra pickup truck when he got to the intersection of Highway 97B and Auto Road SE heading towards Salmon Arm.
It was 2 Celsius and the road was covered in slush as Kenneth Prebble drove south on Highway 97B. As Schultz took a left-hand turn his truck hit Prebble whose vehicle then struck a street light where it flipped before coming to a stop on its roof.
Prebble was killed at the scene.
The fatal crash didn’t make headlines except for a brief mention in the local paper that the highway was down to single-lane alternating traffic but cleared by 7:30 a.m. that morning.
It was a year later Schultz was charged with driving without due care and attention.
He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of failing to yield on a left turn.
Schultz’s lawyer Nickolas Jacob told the court his client struggled to find an explanation for what had happened.
Through tears, the 46-year-old forklift driver apologized.
“I just wanted to say sorry to the family and friends… I think about this every day,” Schultz said. “I’m just really sorry for all this.”
Little was said about Prebble’s life, only that he had three adult children and three grandchildren. His birthday would have been May 28, but his age wasn’t given. An autopsy found he had cocaine in his system.
Jacob said Schultz had previously driven for a living and was aware of the impact of bad driving as his brother had died in a car crash. He does have previous speeding tickets.
“Driving cases where a death ensues are some of the most difficult that we have to deal with in the criminal justice system,” BC Provincial Court Judge Michelle Peacock. “That is partly because the consequences are so horrific, whereas the degree of fault… on the part of the driver is often, as in this case, on the lower end of the spectrum.”
“Understandably, his family feels his loss every day, and that this incident has had a significant impact on them,” the judge said.
The entire court appearance lasted less than 20 minutes, and Judge Peacock accepted a joint submission from lawyers that Schultz should pay a $167 fine but not have any restrictions put on his driver’s licence.
He has until June 30 to pay.
