JENNIFER SALTMAN
VANCOUVER DESI
A Surrey man who drove his car into a bus stop and killed an 83-year-old man five years ago has been granted full parole.
Gurjit Singh Dhillon was convicted in B.C. provincial court in Surrey in November 2012 of dangerous driving causing death and sentenced in April 2013 to one year in jail followed by two years of probation. He is also subject to a five-year driving prohibition.
Dhillon appealed his conviction, but it was dismissed in June.
A parole hearing was held at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre on Tuesday.
On the evening of Sept. 17, 2009, Dhillon was driving his brother’s black Corvette south on 128th Street in Surrey when he came to a stop at the intersection with 72nd Avenue. When the light turned green, Dhillon accelerated quickly to get around a Honda Accord in front of him and switched lanes.
Pritam Benning is shown in a family photo. Benning died after being struck by a Corvette as he waited for a bus near the intersection of 72nd Avenue and 128th Street in Surrey on Sept. 17, 2009. He was 83 years old.
Dhillon lost control of his Corvette during the manoeuvre and clipped the Honda, sending his car veering across the street, where it jumped the curb and smashed into the bench where Pritam Singh Benning sat waiting for a bus.
Benning’s legs were crushed and he was thrown into the air with such force his turban flew off his head. He was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital, where he died five days later.
“My dad was just sitting there at the bus stop minding his own business, waiting for the bus to come home,” said Manjit Benning, who was atTuesday’s hearing.
Manjit said it was bad enough that Dhillon received a one-year jail sentence, but the fact that he will be going home after serving just four months — one-third of his sentence — is almost too much to bear.
“I guess that’s the way the justice system is,” he said. “I just think the whole thing is a joke.”
