The father of Surrey teenager Travis Selje who was killed in a traffic crash in 2017 in Cloverdale is “utterly appalled” that the Crown has decided not to appeal the acquittal of the driver, who smashed into the 17-year-old’s car at 142 km/h, of criminal negligence causing death.
“I am utterly appalled at the incompetence of the British Columbia judicial system,” Miki Selje seethed. “I’m outraged.”
He wanted the Crown to revisit the case after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk found Surrey’s Rituraj Kaur Grewal, 26, not guilty of criminal negligence causing death in the crash in late April. Grewal had been driving her father’s Cadillac at age 22 when it slammed into Selje’s Honda Prelude at high speed on May 3, 2017 at the intersection of 64th Avenue and 176th Street. The boy died in hospital two days later.
“The kid died in vain now,” the grieving father said of his son. “He was killed in vain.”
Grewal testified she has no recollection of the crash and believes she had an epileptic seizure that caused the collision. Watchuk found her to be a “forthright” witness and “credible in her evidence, generally.
Dan McLaughlin, spokesman for the BC Prosecution Service, told the Now-Leader on Tuesday “I can confirm that the BC Prosecution Service will not be proceeding with an appeal.
“After careful review of the decision of the trial judge the BC Prosecution Service was unable to identify an error of law alone as required by our policy and the Criminal Code. Accordingly there is no basis for pursuing an appeal,” he said.
READ ALSO: Grieving Surrey dad wants Crown to appeal Travis Selje fatal crash acquittal
Miki Selje said he doesn’t think B.C.’s justice system was up to the task, anyway.
“I don’t think the B.C. justice system can do better, so you can’t be disappointed in them because I don’t think they can do better,” he said. “I’m not just talking about in my case.”
“It’s not just my situation I’m appalled at – I’m appalled at what I’d seen over the last couple of years,” he said. “I feel bad for other people, and you know what? I’m not going to be the last one. And that pisses me off, and I’m sure that pisses off the person who was before me, and the person who was before them because they knew there was going to be somebody like me out there again. And I know there’s going to be somebody like me out there again.”
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