Tuesday August 19 2014
The
Leader
▲ Thousands enjoy 11th-annual Cloverdale Blueberry Festival 11
IT’S NO ACCIDENT ▶ DAUGHTER OF SURREY COUPLE KILLED IN CRASH RESEARCHES HOW LANGUAGE IMPACTS THE PERCEPTION OF VEHICULAR CRIME 14 Varinder Badh’s parents, Dilbag and Bakhshish Badh, were killed in a hit-and-run crash in Surrey in 2008. She and her sister Rupi were also seriously injured. Through her studies, Varinder has determined using the word ‘accident’ to describe such crimes diminishes the seriousness, accountability and depth of loss. DANIEL PALMER
SHEILA REYNOLDS
She had been in hospital for two weeks before she was told. Still recovering from grave injuries, Varinder Badh heard the inconceivable: the last time she saw her mom and dad was the last night she’d see them alive. That final evening had begun joyfully,
with a party celebrating the engagement of Varinder’s youngest sister, Rupi. After the family get-together on July 12, 2008, Rupi, Varinder and their parents headed home in the same car – Rupi at the wheel, Varinder in the front passenger seat and their parents tucked in the back seat. They were driving down 128 Street near
85 Avenue in Surrey when they were struck from behind by a speeding driver. Dilbag, 61, and his 60-year-old wife Bakhshish died at the scene, and Rupi and Varinder were seriously injured. Ravinder Binning, who was at the wheel of the car that hit them, fled the scene. He didn’t phone for help. He didn’t provide assistance to the injured.
Weeks later, her family’s foundation shattered, a traumatized Varinder began leafing through newspaper accounts about the crash, desperately trying to piece together what had happened. What she noticed exacerbated her already immeasurable pain. continued on page 3