Crown prosecutors say conflicting evidence has forced them to downgrade the street racing charge laid in connection with the death of 83-year-old Pritam Benning in Surrey three years ago.
Twenty-eight-year-old Gurjit Dhillon will now be tried on a single count of dangerous driving causing death in the Sept. 17, 2009 accident.
Benning’s son Manjit responded to the news outside Surrey provincial court Monday, taking a pragmatic approach to Crown’s decision.
“I guess they figured they have a better case by going with dangerous driving,” he said. “I’d like to go with the more sure deal.”
Dhillon was previously accused of racing his black Corvette against a yellow Corvette near 72nd Avenue and 127th Street then losing control of his vehicle, jumping a curb and hitting the bus stop where Benning was sitting.
The Crown says disparate witness evidence forced them to alter the charge to a lesser, but still serious offence.
Monday also saw the release of a previously unheard 911 call Dhillon made following the crash.
“There was an accident, I hit a person. I need an ambulance quick,” Dhillon tells the operator. “It was on a bus stop. Something happened to my car, it just went out of control.”
The call appears to corroborate the version of events the accused’s wife Mamta Dhillon gave in an exclusive interview with CTV News Sunday, in which she described her husband’s efforts to help Benning at the scene.
Dhillon can be heard taking instructions from the 911 operator to wrap Benning’s wounds, which he said are bleeding heavily.
But Manjit Benning said nothing on the tape suggests Dhillon actually felt responsible for the crash.
“The remorse, to tell you the truth I don’t really see it,” he said.
“There was hardly any emotion. You couldn’t tell that… someone was in a really bad way,” Benning added. “My dad’s legs were severed.”
Dhillon’s trial is set to continue in November.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Julia Foy
