Surrey woman Rituraj Kaur Grewal, 26, will hear the judge’s verdict today after she was tried in B.C. Supreme Court of criminal negligence causing death in the 2017 traffic crash that killed Surrey teenager Travis Selje.
Justice Jeanne Watchuk is expected to deliver her verdict this afternoon.
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 in Cloverdale. The 17-year-old boy died in hospital two days later.
An RCMP forensic expert testified during the trial, which was heard in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, that the Cadillac was doing 142 km/h in a 60 km/h zone just prior to hitting Selje’s car.
READ ALSO: Judge to deliver verdict in Travis Selje case on April 22
The court also heard during the trial that Grewal crashed into another car but kept going until she hit Selje’s car further on down the road. For that she was also charged with failing to remain at the scene of a collision, as well as criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the case of another driver, Gary Mordecai.
Grewal testified she has no recollection of the crash and believes she had an epileptic seizure that caused the collision.
Travis Selje
Selje’s death tore a hole in the community. The 1,095-seat Cloverdale Baptist Church was filled to capacity on May 17, 2017 as mourners celebrated the straight-A honour roll student’s life.
Selje’s father, Miki Selje, told the Now-Leader at the outset of the trial in February that there’s “no such thing “as closure.
“People always say, ‘Oh, you’re looking for closure.’ No. There’s no such thing as closure. It’s a wound that will never close, so there’s no closure,” he said.
“My soul is gone. I am no longer a whole person.”
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