The teenager who ran over and killed two children after losing control of his father’s luxury car while driving through a Vaughan neighborhood has pleaded guilty.
The 16-year-old, from Richmond Hill, appeared in court via Zoom on Dec. 1 to admit to two charges of dangerous driving that resulted in the deaths of Anaya Chaudhari, 10, and her brother, Jax, 4, and dangerous driving that caused death. bodily harm from their neighbor, John Chiarelli, 60, who was helping them fix a bicycle chain at the time.
The name of the straight-haired teenager, who had large red circles around his eyes and occasionally wiped away tears, is protected by law because he is a minor.
Crown Sean Doyle read an agreed statement of events after the guilty plea at Newmarket Courthouse.
Around noon, the teenager, driving a high-powered 2017 Mercedes-Benz, came to a complete stop while on Athabasca Drive in Vaughan, near Maple Downs Golf and Country Club, while on his way to visit his girlfriend, court. I’m listening.
After his stop, from a viewpoint where he could not see the children’s home, the young man began to accelerate, reaching 102 km / h at half a second before the vehicle hit the sidewalk.
The analysis showed that the brake pedal was never depressed.
A technical analysis by the York Regional Police found that a car cannot travel faster than 82.7 to 83.9 km / h to successfully navigate the Athabasca curve.
The sedan hit a sidewalk and drove on the front lawn before hitting a tree and hedge.
Following this, the vehicle struck Anaya, Jax, and Chiarelli, before colliding with a retaining wall and a box of electrical transformers.
“Neither had time to take evasive action,” Doyle told the court.
Jax would die later that day and Anaya, the next day.
The cause of death for both was multiple blunt trauma.
Chiarelli suffered a knee fracture that led to the insertion of plates and screws. The knee continues to cause pain with every movement and may require replacement.
Upon exiting the vehicle, the young man made a series of statements, the court heard.
Those include the vehicle having ‘locked up’ and he ‘couldn’t drive’ it, then he had dropped his wallet and was ‘reaching’ when he lost control, and finally something was wrong with the vehicle’s brakes. and that “I did not know what happened”.
An analysis of the car found that nothing was mechanically wrong with the vehicle.
Defense attorney Seth Weinstein made a brief statement in which he said the teenager may have pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, which explains the speed increase shortly before hitting the sidewalk.
“There was no braking when the vehicle passed the curb,” Weinstein said. “A plausible explanation for what happened at the time was that instead of breaking down as he approached the curb, (he) accidentally hit the gas and that’s why he didn’t see any braking in circumstances where, frankly, you’d expect to see braking “.
He added that this was not a defense as the boy was responsible anyway as he would have exceeded the critical curb speed.
Weinstein further added that while he does not deny the suggestion that the boy uttered the comment about his wallet, he added that he had dropped the wallet before coming to a complete stop before the acceleration that led to the collision.
Judge David Rose will decide the appropriate sentence.
The matter is back in court on December 8. The court expects sentencing to occur in about eight weeks.
Reference-www.thestar.com