COLUMN: Follow Ontario’s lead

Another Surrey family is mourning a horrible and unnecessary loss – a loss that is a direct result of irresponsibility.

The Badh family lost their parents, Dilbag and Bakhshish, when the car they were riding in was rear-ended on 128 Street early Saturday morning. The couple were on their way home after attending an engagement party for their daughter Rupi.

From all accounts, the Badhs were fine people. They immigrated to Canada in the 1970s from India, hoping to make a better life for their family. They succeeded – as do so many immigrants who come here and are prepared to work hard.

Rupi, 27, is a nurse. In fact, all four of the Badh children attended university, while their parents worked hard at a series of jobs to support them.

The elderly couple was looking forward to spending more time together. Bakhshish, 60, retired a few years ago, and Dilbag, 61, was hoping to do the same soon.

Their children planned to do more for them. They won’t have that opportunity now.

However, in a way, they are doing something very meaningful for them – and by extension for all law-abiding people – by letting the public know just how devastating this loss is. Son Raminder, 39, told a police press conference on Monday that the two young men whose Acura rear-ended his family’s car were guilty of murder.

He is right. It is the taking of innocent lives by use of a deadly weapon, in this case a car.

It is not an “accident.” It is murder.

Two young men involved in the crash fled the scene, compounding the horror of their initial act.

There are suggestions that this tragedy was caused by street racing. Surrey RCMP are looking into that aspect.

If that is the case, lawmakers in both Ottawa and Victoria need to take a closer look at existing legislation.

The Conservative government in Ottawa has brought in tougher street racing legislation, based in part on a private member’s bill put forward by the late Surrey-North MP Chuck Cadman. While it creates a separate Criminal Code offence for street racing and increases the length of sentences and driving prohibitions, it hasn’t as of yet been much of a deterrent to street racers.

It seems a tough street racing law in Ontario, brought in by the provincial government there in 2007, is acting as more of a deterrent in that province. It has been helped by widespread publicity about some of the people caught in its tentacles – including an 85-year-old man who was fined under the law for driving 161 km/h.

Ontario Provincial Police commissioner Julian Fantino said speed-related highway fatalities are down 42 per cent this year, and much of that has to do with the new laws.

Ontario passed street-racing legislation that increased maximum fines to $10,000 – the highest penalty in Canada. The law also allows police to automatically seize cars for up to a week for those caught driving more than 50 km/h above the posted speed limit.

Yes, it’s tough. But if such a strict law acts as a deterrent to street racing, it may be exactly what’s needed in B.C. as well. There have been far too many street racing deaths here.

It’s one thing when the racers themselves die, but it’s far more devastating when innocent people like the Badhs are the victims.

Surrey’s MPs and MLAs should do some further investigation of existing street-racing laws in various jurisdictions, and if tougher laws are needed at the federal or provincial level, they should be enacted with a minimum of delay.

We don’t need any more situations like the one the Badhs are now caught up in. This tragedy should never be repeated.

Frank Bucholtz is the editor of The Langely Times, a sister paper to The Leader.

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