A Quinte West man has been sentenced to six years in custody for impaired driving causing death in the October 2021 collision that killed 22-year-old Rebecca Beatty and 23-year-old Anastasia Collins.
Aysar Younes, 22 at the time of the collision, was also sentenced to five years for dangerous driving causing death, with that sentence running concurrently with the six-year sentence.
Justice Kristin Muszynski also laid down a 12-year driving prohibition against Younes effective immediately.
The defence had been seeking a four-year custodial sentence while the Crown had been a seeking seven-to-eight-year custodial sentence.
“This was avoidable. There is a strong need to reinforce the principles of denunciation and deterrence. For this reason, I find that the four-year custodial sentence proposed by the defence is not fit and just,” Justice Muszynski explained in her decision.
“Similarly, I find that the Crown’s proposal for a seven-to-eight-year custodial sentence does not adequately account for the mitigating factors. In this case most notably, Mr. Younes does not have a criminal record and only has a remote traffic record.”
During the midday on October 3, 2021, a GMC Yukon driven by Younes crossed the centre line on Old Highway 2 near CFB Trenton colliding head on with a Nissan Versa carrying Beatty and Collins.
Both 22-year-old Rebecca Beatty of Quinte West and 23-year-old Anastasia Collins of Belleville were pronounced dead at the scene.
Younes had been at a cottage party north of Kingston the night before the collision where alcohol and cocaine were consumed.
CEO of MADD Canada, Steve Sullivan commented on the decision to Quinte News.
He says given what the Crown and the defence were looking for in sentencing, he was not surprised that a decision would come in the middle.
“There’s no way I think anyone’s going to think that six years for the loss of the lives of two young women is appropriate, and that’s why sentencing is a really poor tool of measuring the harm done. But I’m not sure what kind of solace this will bring to the families involved,” Sullivan tells Quinte News.
“It is kind of, I think, in the range of what was expected, given how sentences have been increasing somewhat over the last number of years.”
Sullivan says a case like this is a reminder of what one decision can do to one or more families.
“You have two families that have lost their incredible daughters, but you also have another family whose son is going to jail, and that’s because of one person’s decision,” Sullivan said.
“(It’s) really important that people plan ahead. Never assume you’re going to be okay if you’re feeling impaired. There’s so many different options, and we all owe a responsibility to each other. If people see someone driving that they think is driving impaired, call 911, because you might be preventing a tragedy like this.”
