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Thursday March 15, 2012 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com www. w su s r r eyleade e r.c er co
Fatal crash ‘could have happened Transit Police to anyone,’ killer driver says
model criticized
Man whose driving caused the deaths of Bakhshish and Dilbag Badh sentenced today
New chief disputes report’s findings by Jeff Nagel
by Sheila Reynolds TRANSLINK’S TRANSIT Police are A HUSH fell over a Surrey court-
room Tuesday afternoon as Ravinder Singh Binning approached the microphone. He began by apologizing to Surrey’s Badh family, two of whom were killed when a speeding Binning slammed into the back of their car, sending it spinning into a street pole near 85 Avenue and 128 Street. Binning fled the scene where Dilbag and Bakhshish Badh were fatally injured, and their two daughters, Rupi and Varinder, were seriously hurt. “I cannot imagine what they have gone through and continue to go through,” said Binning during his sentencing hearing before Judge Reg Harris in Surrey Provincial Court. Binning, 30, said he has been vilified and portrayed in the media as a “horrible person” who should get the death penalty. “But what happened on that night four years ago was something that... could have happened to anyone. It was a complete accident,” he said, adding he hoped the Badh family would someday forgive him. It was July 12, 2008 when Rupi Badh was driving her mom and dad, Dilbag, 61, and Bakhshish, 60, and sister Varinder home from a party celebrating Rupi’s engagement.
under renewed criticism after a report for the Edmonton Police Service warned the Metro Vancouver transit security model is one that should not be emulated. The report by Edmonton Police Acting Supt. Garry Meads flags jurisdictional overlaps between Transit Police – who act as a supplemental service with full policing powers mainly along SkyTrain lines – and the local police or RCMP who do have specific geographical responsibilities. “This type of arrangement has resulted in much confusion and inefficiencies,” Meads said in the April 2011 Garry Meads report, adding he was told the model will likely never be repeated in B.C. There’s often uncertainty about whether Transit Police or local police should respond to a call, he said, resulting in “negotiation” between the forces and “frustration” among stakeholders. Mead said it should not have been a surprise that the TransLink policing model would be challenging.
“This type of arrangement has resulted in much confusion...”
Bakhshish and Dilbag Badh were killed when their car was hit by a vehicle driven by Ravinder Binning, who then fled the scene. Binning will be sentenced today (March 15). In a victim impact statement read in court Tuesday, a tearful Rupi recalled seeing her father dead in the back seat and her mom lying on the pavement after being thrown from the car as a “complete nightmare.” Rupi said she was always protec-
tive of her parents, but could do nothing to help them the fateful night of the crash. Eldest daughter Jatinder Badh said she lives every day with regret, wishing she had said a proper goodbye to her parents after the engagement party.
“We live with this everlasting legacy of agony day in and day out,” she said. The emotion-filled morning was too much for their brother Raminder, who stormed out of the courtroom, shouting at Binning’s family.
See BINNING / Page 3
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