By Keith Fraser, Vancouver Sun
SURREY — A man whose vehicle struck and killed a homeless man following a confrontation near the notorious street in Surrey known as “The Strip” has been convicted of criminal negligence causing death.
On Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams also found Christopher Lennox Griffith guilty of failing to remain at the scene of the August 2013 accident that took the life of Robert Paterson, 40.
Griffith testified that before the fatal collision, he feared for his life because of the presence of people armed with weapons around his truck and didn’t realize that he had struck someone when he fled a parking lot at the Royal Canadian Legion at 135 A Street and 106 Avenue.
But the judge said he was unable to accept that he didn’t know that he had hit someone, noting that, in a statement to police, Griffith had said he saw someone but that it was too late.
Williams said that Griffith drove his truck from the parking lot over a sidewalk and into the street without any real idea of where he was going and with a real risk he would encounter people.
“The manner in which he drove was manifestly and egregiously reckless,” said the judge. “His speed and the aggressive nature of the driving in the circumstances significantly aggravated the risk he took.”
135A Street in Whalley, known as The Strip, is frequented by homeless people, drug users and prostitutes.
Griffith, who was driving without a licence at the time, had earlier in the evening consumed five beers at a bar with a friend. He then picked up a sex trade worker at The Strip and had returned to the legion’s parking lot after she performed a sex act for him.
The judge said a number of people were in the vicinity of the truck and “some sort of disagreement” was brewing between the people inside the truck and those outside the vehicle, one of whom was brandishing some sort of stick or pipe.
Griffith, a 31-year-old electrician at the time, got out of his truck and went to the rear of the vehicle to get a baseball bat before getting back inside his truck. He became increasingly concerned that the group of people represented a threat to him and the woman inside his vehicle.
To discourage people from approaching his truck, he revved the engine and made some short, lurching movements forward. When those measures failed to have an effect, he decided to “drive his way out of the problem,” said the judge. He drove forward aggressively, forcing some people to go one direction, but hit Paterson, who had nothing to do with the confrontation.
“He was substantially a bystander,” the judge said of Paterson. “He was there to see what the problem was and for no other reason.”
When he was hit by the truck, Paterson was thrown in the air and when he landed, the vehicle drove over top of him.
Griffith drove off and later abandoned the vehicle. He phoned a friend but did not call police before getting into a cab and returning to the vicinity of the accident, where he was arrested.
The accused argued that his actions were necessary in the circumstances and that he was acting in self-defence, but the judge rejected both of those arguments.
The case has been put over to March 30 to fix a date for sentencing.
