BURST
A Squamish man has been sentenced to 4½ years in prison for a drunken hit-and-run that killed a mother of two and caused life-altering injuries to her cousin as they waited at a bus stop.
Cernos, 40, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in B.C. provincial court for impaired driving causing death and causing bodily harm and fleeing the scene.
On Sept. 2, 2022, Cernos, who had been drinking since 4 p.m. at a house party for his two-year-old daughter’s birthday, left at 11 p.m. in a Ford F250 headed to a casino against his then-fiancée’s wishes, according to a recent judgment.
He crashed the truck at a high speed while turning the corner at Cleveland and Pemberton avenues, a main downtown intersection, flipping it and hitting the wooden bench that Gurpreet Sangha and her cousin, Kuljeet Saran, were sitting on.
Sangha, 46 and a mother of two teenagers, who had got off work at 11 p.m. at a nearby restaurant, was pinned by the truck until Good Samaritans lifted it off her. She suffered massive injuries and died two weeks later in hospital.
Saran was thrown 100 metres and spent 12 days in hospital for surgeries to treat chest injuries and a broken leg. She also had injuries to her stomach, a broken collar bone, a collapsed lung and broken ribs and continues to suffer physically, emotionally and financially, according to the judgment.
Cernos walked away from the scene and was arrested an hour later at his home, and told police he had no memory of the crash, wrote Judge Timothy Hinkson.
The prosecution asked for a five-year sentence in recognition of the gains Cernos had made since the accident, saying anything over five years would be “crushing,” plus a three-year driving ban, and his lawyer had sought a three-year prison term.
Hinkson acknowledged Cernos’s guilty plea, his acceptance of responsibility for the harm he’s done, rehabilitation efforts, community support and remorse.
But “the offences are grave, his blameworthiness high and the circumstances were aggravated,” Hinkson wrote. “This sentencing cannot resolve the despair felt by all of those who have been impacted,”
He noted the “immeasurable pain and loss” suffered by Sangha’s husband and children, and by Saran, who relies on others to care for her because of her injuries.
The judge also acknowledged the impact on Cernos and his family, especially his young daughter, because of the crash he caused, which was “compounded by his impaired decision-making in the immediate aftermath.”
He said Cernos’s pre-sentence report included his work as a foreman in the rebar industry despite only a Grade 10 education, volunteer work, a childhood diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and multiple significant brain injuries.
It noted he has struggled with depression, negativity and isolation, before and after the offences, and with substance abuse, which led to a criminal record and periods of estrangement from family.
He said he began drinking at age 10 and used cocaine in his teens and had been in and out of treatment centres and abused different drugs until 2015, when he began methadone treatment and stopped all except marijuana and alcohol, Hinkson wrote.
He has been jailed more than once for between one and two years for property related offences, and has nine driving offences, including a 24-hour roadside driving ban in 2007, according to the judgment.
Hinkson also noted Cernos stopped drinking after the crash and has been attending weekly alcohol recovery meetings and counselling.
There were letters of support from his wife, family, longtime friends, his counsellor and employer, all attesting to his excellence as a father and uncle, worker and workmate. His employer is committed to assisting with his rehabilitation.
Many said drunk driving was out of character for Cernos and of his positive rehab prospects.
Cernos addressed the court at sentencing through a written statement and letters of apology to Saran and to Sangha’s husband, in which he accepted responsibility and expressed empathy for the victims and the community. He said he deserves jail and will use it to improve himself through counselling and education.
Hinkson said he was “satisfied that his remorse is genuine and profound.”