42-month sentence in street-racing death
Gail Swainson
Urban Affairs Reporter

Published On Fri Dec 4 2009

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/arti...t-racing-death

A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to 42 months in jail for his role in a high-speed street racing accident on Highway 400 that left an Innisfil truck driver dead and his family "overwhelmed with grief."

"No one is a winner, it is a tragedy for everybody," Justice Bruce Glasstold Ravi Badhwar after handing down his ruling Thursday. Badhwar, who has maintained his innocence throughout, shook his head when asked if he had anything to say before being led away in handcuffs.

In October, a jury found Badhwar guilty of criminal negligence causing death by street racing and failing to remain at the scene of a fatal accident in the June 2007 death of David Virgoe.

Glass sentenced Badhwar to 30 months on the criminal negligence conviction and 12 months for failing to remain, both sentences to be served consecutively.

Badhwar will spend 37 months in jail after receiving five months credit for some two months already spent in custody. The Mississauga student faces automatic deportation to his native India, with no chance of appeal, after serving out his sentence.

The other two drivers involved, Nauman Nusrat, 21, and Prab Multani, 22, both of Etobicoke, earlier pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing causing death by street racing and were each sentenced to 30 months. Nusrat also received a lifetime driving ban.

Court was told the men's three vehicles were weaving in and out of traffic for some 44 km along Highway 400 northbound at speeds of up to 200 km/h.

Just south of Highway 89, Nusrat, then 19, lost control of his Pontiac Grand Am, fishtailed and struck a Jeep, setting off a chain reaction of collisions. Virgoe swerved to avoid hitting other vehicles after he was struck and his big rig careened across the highway, hit a ditch and flipped, killing the 48-year-old instantly.

Court heard that Badhwar left the scene of the accident, which "flies in the face of his obligation to remain and assist," Glass said in his ruling..

Outside the courtroom, Virgoe's wife Debbie said she is "glad the ordeal is over.

"Like the judge said, nobody wins," said Debbie Virgoe. "We have four families here that have been completely destroyed."

Shweta Tiwari, Badhwar's girlfriend, said that he had nothing directly to do with causing the accident and therefore should not have been found guilty. She said that because Badhwarwill be deported, his plans to study accounting at Ryerson and help his family in India now lay in tatters.

"This has just ruined his life," Tiwari said." They're making it look like he killed somebody and he didn't."

But Glass said in his ruling that the three drivers "acted in concert"as they raced across lanes at high speeds. Furthermore, Badhwar has shown no mitigating remorse for his actions that day, Glass added.

This is in stark contrast to Nusrat, who after pleading guilty last year told the court: "I am ashamed and embarrassed. I call myself a murderer, a sinner."

In his ruling, Glass said that the three were "playing a form of road tag" on the highway. "The death of David Virgoe resulted from street racing on a major highway," Glass said in his sentencing decision. "They drove in a reckless manner for 44 km."

Badhwar sat with his head bowed as Glass recounted the devastating affectVirgoe's untimely death has had on his wife, daughter, parents and siblings.

An investigation showed that Virgoe's emergency manoeuvres prevented more crashes, said the OPP after the accident. After losing control in the northbound lanes, Virgoe hit the guard rail in he median then swerved back into the northbound lanes to avoid slamming into southbound traffic.