Drunk driver sentenced to prison for deadly crash in Squamish, B.C.

The deadly crash happened before midnight on Sept. 2, 2022, when the driver of a 1999 Ford F250 came around the corner of Pemberton Avenue at Cleveland Avenue, lost control, flipped the pickup truck, and pinned two women underneath. (CTV)

A man who drunkenly crashed his pickup truck into a bus stop in Squamish, B.C., killing one woman and seriously injuring another, before fleeing the scene on foot, has been sentenced to four and a half years behind bars.

John Cernos was 37 years old in September 2022, when he lost control of his white Ford F250 pickup truck at a downtown intersection, rolling the vehicle onto its side and into two women waiting to catch a bus.

Gurpreet Sangha, 46, was pinned underneath the truck, while her cousin Kuljeet Saran, 46, was thrown about 100 metres from the collision site.

Saran, who was visiting from India, had met up with Sangha, who had just finished her late shift working at a nearby restaurant. Cernos had been attempting to drive himself to a casino after “consuming a significant amount of alcohol,” B.C. provincial court Judge Tim Hinkson wrote in his sentencing decision.

Driver ‘does not remember’ crash

While bystanders rushed to the scene to render aid to the two women, Cernos got out of the truck and ran away before emergency responders arrived. According to court documents, he returned home to his fiancée. When the police showed up at the residence minutes later, his fiancée told them he was not home.

“Mr. Cernos does not remember the incident” due to his intoxication, according to the judge, who wrote that when Cernos was eventually detained during the crash investigation, he “believed the police arrested the wrong person.”

It was only when he was shown the wreckage of his truck that he began to piece the events together, the court heard. “Even though he still does not remember significant portions of the incident, his remorse is profound and his acceptance of responsibility for his actions and their consequences is as complete as it can be,” the judge wrote.

Sangha died in hospital two weeks after the crash, while Saran was released from hospital with life-altering injuries.

Truck was ‘coming towards them’

According to an agreed statement of facts in the case, Cernos had started drinking around 4 p.m. on the day of the crash, Sep. 2, 2022. He and his fiancée were hosting a party for the second birthday of their daughter that evening.

Shortly after 11 p.m., Cernos asked his fiancée for the keys to her Jeep so he and a friend could go to the local Chances Casino. “His fiancée said they were drunk and could not drive her Jeep,” the judge summarized.

The fiancée recommended they instead take the free casino shuttle. “Witnesses described the conversation becoming ‘heated,’ describing the screaming of profanities,” the judge’s summary continued.

The fiancée called a taxi and then called the casino to arrange for a ride. One minute later, witnesses told the court they heard a truck “speed out” from the residence, “emitting black smoke” as it left the home.

The truck sped through a four-way stop into downtown Squamish with the headlights off, the court heard.

“Ms. Sangha and Ms. Saran heard the truck Mr. Cernos was driving,” the judge wrote, summarizing testimony heard in court. “Ms. Saran was frightened. Ms. Sangha tried to reassure her and told her that it was only a truck, but Ms. Saran said it was coming towards them.”

Vehicle fishtailed and flipped

Witness statements and surveillance video from the area showed the truck accelerating into a corner and then fishtailing before flipping over and crashing into the bus stop where the women were seated on a bench.

The truck “took down a chain-link fence that was behind the bench” before coming to a rest on the driver’s side “with its front-end pointing opposite to the direction in which it had been travelling,” the court heard.

A forensic analysis of the vehicle found no mechanical or environmental factors contributed to the collision. “A forensic collision reconstruction expert concluded that the truck was travelling too fast to safely navigate the turn and that if the truck had been travelling at a slower speed around the turn, the loss of control and the collision would not have occurred,” the judge wrote.

Bystanders lifted the overturned truck off of Sangha, who was pinned under the rear axel, and the two cousins were rushed to Squamish General Hospital by ambulance, and later transferred to Vancouver General Hospital for more advanced care.

‘He was obviously intoxicated’

The bystanders also helped Cernos exit the truck through the back window of the cab. “He was obviously intoxicated and smelled of alcohol,” the court heard. “Someone told him to lay down and wait a minute, but he said ‘I gotta go’ and got up and started walking away.”

He called his fiancée three times while walking. A witness reported hearing him say either “Someone stole my truck” or “You have to tell them they stole my truck,” followed by “I’m coming home now,” according to the court documents. Surveillance video showed him running towards his home, the judge wrote.

Before Cernos got home, his fiancée texted him “expressing disbelief at his story and telling him, ‘Have fun spending money we don’t have,’ with a thumbs-up emoji,” the judge wrote.

Police arrived at the couple’s home at 11:46 p.m., where Cernos’s partner was “unco-operative,” telling officers her fiancé was away and would not be home until days later.

“A video taken and sent to a friend who had been at the party shows Mr. Cernos sitting on a couch in his living room, one minute after his fiancée spoke to police,” the judge wrote. “Mr. Cernos appears to have left shortly after the video was taken because his fiancée was texting him about the police ‘looking around the house.’”

RCMP investigators conducted surveillance on the home until 12:31 a.m., when they saw the porch light turn on and Cernos walk outside drinking a can of beer, according to the court.

Cernos charged 14 months later

Cernos was arrested and taken to the Squamish RCMP detachment, where he was “agitated and unco-operative,” according to the judge. “He denied being the driver of the truck, stating he was home with his fiancée drinking Lucky-brand beer that night.”

Cernos was released from police custody later that afternoon and would remain uncharged and at large for more than 14 months until November 2023, when he was again arrested and released on a police undertaking as the investigation moved forward.

Cernos would plead guilty in January of this year to six charges, namely one count each of impaired driving causing bodily harm, impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving, dangerous driving causing death, failure to remain at the scene of a collision, and failure to remain at the scene of a collision causing death.

His prior criminal record dates back to 2009 and includes jail sentences of less than two years for property-related crimes, the court heard.

The offender quit drinking following the deadly crash and went on to marry his fiancée, who is not identified in the court documents.

“He has remained in Squamish so as to not run away from what he did, hoping to show the community that he is trying to better himself and learn from what he has done,” the judge wrote. “He is approached by people occasionally and asked questions about the offences. He tries to respond and accept any criticisms people express.”

‘A crushing sentence’

The Crown prosecutor sought a combined prison sentence of eight years for the charges, while Cernos’s defence lawyer argued that three years in prison and a $4,000 fine was appropriate.

The judge wrote in his decision that the maximum penalty available for a conviction of impaired driving causing death is life in prison. So too for the charge of failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death.

Were it not for the mitigating factors of the offender’s guilty plea and expressions of remorse, the judge would have preferred a sentence of six and a half years in prison, he wrote.

“I am aware that it is a heavier sentence than anyone expected, and the Crown submitted that anything over five years would be a crushing sentence,” he continued.

“I am reducing the sentence for impaired driving causing death to 48 months, and for leaving the scene of an accident causing death to six months consecutive to the impaired driving counts, solely to ensure that the total sentence fairly reflects Mr. Cernos’s moral culpability. The total sentence will be 54 months, or four and a half years.”

Cernos is also prohibited from driving for seven years by order of the court.