Speeding driver in controversial case sentenced to 18 months in jail after appealing to Supreme Court
A driver caught on video speeding through a Vancouver intersection and hitting a vehicle driven by a beloved doctor who died at the scene has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.
In 2015, Ken Chung's silver Audi was travelling 140 km/h in a 50 km/h zone moments before it slammed into the red Suzuki driven by Dr. Alphonsus Hui. Hui was making a left-hand turn at the intersection of Oak Street and West 41st Avenue.
Dashcam video captured the horrific incident in 2015.
Chung was charged with dangerous driving causing death but he was not convicted by provincial court Judge Gregory Rideout. The judge originally found that Chung didn't have what is known in legal terms as mens rea — or guilty mind — required to find him guilty of dangerous driving causing death.
Hui's daughter, Monique Hui, posted a petition online calling for Crown prosecutors to appeal Rideout's decision and for the B.C. government to introduce stricter legislation to deter dangerous drivers.
The controversial decision was eventually overturned by British Columbia's Court of Appeal in 2019 which found the original judge had erred in law and convicted Chung.
Chung took his case to the Supreme Court of Canada, but the conviction was upheld.
On Wednesday, the B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed Chung had been sentenced to 18 months in jail and banned from driving for five years.
After the sentencing, Hui described how the case took a toll on her family.
Her 68-year-old father worked as a family doctor in Vancouver's Oakridge neighbourhood for more than 40 years. At the time of his death he was spearheading a group called the New Life Stem Cell Society which helped collect stem cell donations on behalf of patients from a variety of ethnic groups.
"It's been a long and torturous road of five years of dragging my family through hell, three different courts, provincial appeals, and then the Supreme Court of Canada to get to this point and then to only get an 18-month jail sentence," said Monique Hui.
Hui said she feels mixed emotions because she wanted closure for her family, but doesn't believe the sentence is tough enough.
"If you look at the effects to not just me and my family, but the community that my dad served and all the stem cell research he was doing and the thousands of patients that he had committed his time and resources to, I mean, the ripple effect is huge."
