B.C.’s Court of Appeal has rejected the case of a man sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of dangerous driving causing death for a July 2018 motorcycle accident involving his girlfriend.
In May 2022, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Duncan said Harrison Vaughn Ludwig Heth-Klems took a friend’s Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle without consent on July 13, 2018.
Appeal court Justice Gregory Fitch said Heth-Klems argued the trial judge failed to identify how and in what way his driving conduct went beyond mere negligence and amounted to a marked departure from what a reasonable person would have done in the circumstances.
Heth-Klems further argued that on the factual findings made by the judge, she could not have convicted him of the offence charged.
Heth-Klems was not licensed to operate a motorcycle and was prohibited from driving at the time.
He took his girlfriend, Megan Kinnee, out for dinner and then, with her as a passenger, drove on Highway 1 east towards a park.
Traffic on the highway was slow and Heth-Klems took an exit from the highway to the adjacent South Parallel Road in Abbotsford.
Duncan said a camera at a business on the road captured the motorcycle travelling at 120 km/h in an 80km/h speed zone. Soon after, it collided with the rear of a Lincoln Navigator travelling slowly along South Parallel Road.
“His choice to drive contrary to that prohibition and in the manner he did resulted in Ms. Kinnee’s death and has visited an enormous loss on her family,” Duncan said.
Duncan said in the April 27 decision released May 2 that Heth-Klems took his eyes off the road ahead of him to observe an accident on Highway 1.
“His driving was a marked departure from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person. The collision caused the death of Ms. Kinnee.”
Duncan also gave Heth-Klems a three-year driving ban.
Fitch said Duncan made no error in finding the needed fault requirement was established in the case.
“The judge found that the appellant’s driving conduct demonstrated a ‘marked’ departure from the standard of care a reasonable person would have observed,” Fitch said. “The marked departure was in looking away from the road for an inordinate and unsafe period of time while travelling at a high rate of speed and with knowledge that a slower moving vehicle was ahead.”
Fitch said Heth-Klems argued Duncan failed to identify how and in what way his departure from the reasonable person standard went markedly beyond mere carelessness.
“I would not give effect to this ground of appeal,” Fitch said.
