Six months for man who fled fatal collision

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This article was published 10/05/2022 (862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Ashern cattle farmer who didn’t stop to help following a highway collision in which a 30-year-old was killed has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Frankie Kehler, 45, was convicted after a trial last year on one count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

Adam Sinclair was struck down May 4, 2019, by a truck on Highway 6 near Ashern, after his own vehicle rolled into the ditch and he wandered back onto the road.

Kehler was not charged with impaired driving causing death because both the Crown and defence agreed even a sober driver would not have been able to avoid hitting Sinclair.

“While he’s not at fault for causing the accident, that is not to say he is without fault,” Queen’s Bench Justice Shaun Greenberg said Tuesday. “Leaving the scene of an accident is a criminal offence because it is morally repugnant. It is often an offence committed by people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens.”

Greenberg had acquitted Kehler of impaired driving, ruling while she did not accept his claim he did not start drinking until after the collision, the evidence of an RCMP forensic alcohol specialist who calculated his blood alcohol level was compromised by incomplete information.

Court was told Kehler had spent the evening with friends at the Moosehorn Hotel bar as they celebrated his wife’s birthday. He left for home around 2:30 a.m.

Around that same time, Sinclair and girlfriend Sonya Sumner were driving south on Highway 6 when Sumner, who was behind the wheel, swerved to miss hitting an animal, lost control of the vehicle and rolled into the ditch.

Sumner, who broke her ankle, had dragged herself to the road to flag down a vehicle when, about 25 minutes later, Sinclair, who had been knocked unconscious, walked onto the highway, appearing dazed and waving his arms.

He was immediately struck by a truck which did not stop.

Kehler, who claimed he was the designated driver and did not drink at the bar that night, testified he had opened a new bottle of whisky when they got home and he started to drink. He said he went outside an hour later to check the damage on his truck and only then realized he might have hit a person, not an animal, and called 911.

Greenberg said the “only reasonable inference” the court could take from Kehler’s actions following the collision was that he was trying to “camouflage” the fact he had been drinking earlier in the evening.

“That said, the evidence did not establish that he was impaired while driving or drinking over the legal limit,” she said.

Kehler testified he was driving the speed limit and did not brake prior to the collision.

“Anyone would have known that hitting a person at that speed could kill them,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg ordered that Kehler be prohibited from driving for one year following his release from custody.

While Kehler’s manner of driving was not a factor in Sinclair’s death, “the deterrent effect of a driving prohibition is important in cases of failing to stop at the scene of an accident,” she said.

Sinclair’s great-aunt told the Free Press Kehler’s sentence was too lenient because a life was lost.

“I think the message being sent here is: rush home and have a drink and then call police,” she said.

Sinclair had three young children who are now being raised by their great-grandparents, the woman said.

“Are they going to be here in another 10 years to raise these children?” she said.

Sinclair, who worked as a teacher’s aide and security officer, “was a great dad” and “always smiling,” she said.

“He was a very happy person. He liked to joke around and make people smile.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca