Convicted Indo-Canadian Driver Who Killed Elderly Couple In 2008 Hit-And-Run Denied Parole

0
160

SURREY – The Indo-Canadian driver who killed an elderly couple from his own community and then like a coward ran away from responsibility only to caught and convicted of the heinous crime will not be leaving jail anytime soon.

The family of 60-year-old Bakhshish Badh and her 61-year-old husband Dilbag, killed in a 2008 crash, is relieved the driver, Ravinder Singh Binning, has been denied parole.

Binning was sentenced in spring 2012 to four-and-a-half years in jail and a 10-year driving ban after pleading guilty a month earlier to five charges – two of dangerous driving causing death, one of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and one failure to stop at the scene of an accident, reported the Surrey Leader.

During Thursday’s parole hearing held outside Victoria, where Binning is being held, he was denied day and full parole.

It was July 12, 2008 when Binning was speeding down 128 Street near 85 Avenue in his Acura and slammed into a BMW carrying Bakhshish and Dilbag Badh and, killing them.

Daughter Varinder was critically injured and didn’t find out her parents were dead for two weeks. Varinder’s sister Rupi, who was driving the car, was also seriously injured.

During the trial, she recalled the horror of seeing her mom, who was thrown from the car, lying in the street, while her dad was dead in the back seat.

The family was heading home after attending an engagement party for Rupi and her then-fiancé.

Members of the Badh family attended the hearing in Victoria Thursday and were glad Binning was not granted parole. Varinder Badh said he continues to minimize the incident and rationalize his behaviour and is not ready to be released.

“The family feels a sense of relief that the parole board recognizes road crimes in the same seriousness as other pragmatic offences,” said Varinder. “We cannot accept injuries and fatalities on the roads as the cost of transportation. Driving is a privilege, not a right.”

During Binning’s sentencing last year, Judge Reg Harris said though Binning apologized, he did not find the defendant showed genuine remorse. He also chided Binning for not only fleeing the horrific crash scene, but using his cell phone to call his own friends and family, rather than calling 911.

Binning wasn’t arrested until 2010, and even then, denied being the driver. During the trial, the court heard his DNA matched blood found on an airbag in the abandoned car.

He did not plead guilty until February 2012, on the day his trial was to begin, nearly four years after the fatal crash.

The court heard Binning, a former truck driver, had a lengthy prior driving record, which included 16 driving prohibitions between 2002 and 2009, many of them involving alcohol.

Just months after the crash with the Badhs, he was caught driving the same stretch of road while drunk, sped from police, crashed into a fence and attempted to fight an officer before being arrested.

Courtesy Surrey Leader