Passenger in car that killed cyclist fails in bid to have driving prohibition lifted

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This article was published 29/10/2024 (318 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man arrested following a high-speed crash that killed a 61-year-old cyclist has lost a bid to get back behind the wheel.

Lyle Barker-Young,18, was a passenger and leaseholder of a 2013 BMW sedan driven by his roommate Beckham Severight at three times the speed limit when the vehicle hit Rob Jenner as he cycled along Wellington Crescent on his way to work last spring.

Police arrested Barker-Young in September and released him on an undertaking that included conditions he not occupy the front seat of a vehicle and have no contact with Severight. He has since been charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

At a court hearing Monday, Barker-Young, through his lawyer, urged King’s Bench Justice Brian Bowman to remove the driving prohibition.

Court heard Barker-Young secured a job three weeks ago that requires him to drive.

Barker-Young wasn’t driving at the time of the collision, so a driving prohibition isn’t necessary to protect the public, defence lawyer Debbie Buors told Bowman.

“It is too much of an onerous condition to be imposed on (Barker-Young),” Buors said. “It is a significant imposition on his freedom and his liberty.”

Severight pleaded guilty last week to dangerous driving causing death and leaving the scene of an accident. According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Barker-Young had leased the BMW just one week before the fatal June 6 collision.

Severight, who had only a learner’s permit, was driving 159 km/h when he rounded a curve on Wellington Crescent at Hugo Street around 7 a.m., saw Jenner in the same lane and lost control of his vehicle before colliding with Jenner’s back bike tire, sending him crashing onto the car’s hood and then roadway.

Barker-Young told Severight not to stop and he drove away before stopping a short time later for Barker-Young to take the driver’s seat, says the agreed statement facts.

Jenner was taken to hospital and was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

Driving is a privilege, not a guaranteed right, Crown attorney Mitchell Lavitt argued Monday.

“Not being able to drive, while an inconvenience, is not an interference with (Barker-Young’s) liberty,” Lavitt told Bowman. “There are other ways to get around.”

As an “aider and abetter”, Barker-Young is on the same legal footing as Severight, Lavitt alleged.

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The collision occurred “at tremendously high speed at 7 in the morning… and as a result of that we have someone who has lost his life,” he said.

Bowman declined to remove the driving prohibition, citing the serious nature of the offence and the impact doing so would have on public confidence in the justice system.

Bowman placed Barker-Young on bail under the same conditions as his undertaking.

Severight remains in custody. He has never applied for bail. A date for sentencing has not been set.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.