A Ladysmith man who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and failing to stop and offer assistance has been sentenced to six years in prison and is prohibited from driving for 10 years.
Provincial court Judge Adrian Brooks looked at the horrific photos of the fatal collision on the Trans Canada Highway near Oyster Sto-Lo Road on Aug. 29, 2020 and wondered aloud how the accused, Steven Knowles, could have just walked away without offering assistance.
“It is very, very difficult to look at those photographs, to see what happened on that road and to think that Mr. Knowles walked away,” Brooks said during an emotional sentencing hearing.
“How having caused that, does one walk away? … It establishes in my mind that Mr. Knowles’ moral blameworthiness for what he did on that day is very, very high.”
Crown prosecutor Menaka Giri told the court that Knowles was driving a Ford F150 south on Highway 1 at 8:38 a.m. The light was red. As it turned green, Knowles passed the car in the slow lane and veered left, striking the highway divider and taking out the left turn traffic light. The truck ended up on the opposite side of the highway, where Katie Blogg, a young mother of two, was heading north. The truck hit her vehicle on the driver’s side, said Giri. The truck spun a number of times and came to rest on its roof.
Blogg, 35, was pinned inside her car and died at the scene of severe trauma to her head and upper body.
Knowles kicked a hole in his windshield and got out of the truck, then reached back to find his cellphone. He walked away towards an A & W restaurant, said Giri. An off-duty police officer, who had seen the collision, found him in the parking lot.
When she identified herself as a police officer, Knowles asked her if anyone was injured. She told him people were hurt and he said: “I think I caused this.”
They walked back to the scene and the officer told him to remain there. However, a few minutes later, Knowles stole a red station wagon and drove off.
On Sept. 2, 2020, police found Knowles hiding at a campsite. They arrested him and seized his cellphone.
Police recovered a text from Knowles telling a friend he needed a place to “lay low, hide out.” Knowles said he was in a very bad accident and wrote off a buddy’s truck.
“I’m lucky to be alive. Seriously, the cab is smashed in and everything from the windshield forward is no longer attached to the truck. I should be dead,” he texted.
A collision reconstruction report determined that he was driving between 106 and 115 kilometres per hour in the area which has a posted speed limit of 90.
In his victim impact statement, Trevor Blogg said Aug. 29, 2009 was the day he and Katie were married — the happiest day of his life.
Eleven years later, all the joy has been sucked out of that day, replaced by absolute sorrow and pain, he said.
“Now Aug. 29 represents the day my children lost their mother and I, my wife. … I vividly remember looking at my two children, who were five and two, and telling them that Mummy had passed away. To see the absolute horror on my children’s faces is something that will haunt me forever. No child deserves to hear those words. No child deserves to live the rest of their lives without the love and support of their mother.”
Anyone who knew Katie knew that being a mother was the most important thing to her; when Grace was born in 2014, Katie became a stay-at-home mum, he said. “Our children adored her and she adored them back,” said Trevor Blogg.
He remembered how they would speak of their future and imagine experiencing all their children’s milestones together. “She will miss everything now.”
Katie’s mother, Henriette Wingfield, said her world came crashing down on Aug. 29, 2020. She heard the sirens that morning and thought “Wow, something really bad had happened.” She found out later that Katie had been killed.
The day was a blur, but Wingfield remembered bathing Grace and Harrison that night.
“Grace said to me ‘Is Mummy really dead?’ My heart sank. ‘But she said she would never leave me,’ Grace sobbed. And Harrison took his little hands to wipe away his big sister’s little tears. It was devastating.”
Later, Harrison climbed out of his crib, calling “Mummy mummy.”
“These horrible memories I will never forget,” said Wingfield, calling her eldest daughter her best friend.
Katie Blogg’s sisters and father also described the devastating loss of a creative, humorous and loving young woman.
Defence lawyer Cheyne Hodson said Knowles, 39, had a difficult childhood and suffered from various types of abuse. He has struggled with homelessness and addiction since his late teens and is extremely remorseful.
At the time of the crash, Knowles was prohibited from driving. His driving record has a dangerous driving incident before the fatal collision and “somewhat shockingly a dangerous incident after the event,” said Brooks.
Knowles was sentenced to four years for dangerous driving causing death and two years for failing to stop and offer assistance after being involved in the fatal crash.
