B.C. drunk driver gets more than eight years for killing three people
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man who killed two cyclists and a passenger in his own vehicle while driving drunk along a winding, mountain highway north of Whistler has been sentenced to eight years and four months in prison.
Samuel Alec pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court in February to three counts of impaired driving causing death after he mowed down cyclists Ross Chafe and Kelly Blunden who were out for a weekend ride in May 2015. Alec’s friend in the passenger seat of the vehicle, Paul Pierre, was also killed.
The court heard that Alec, 46, was returning home to Lillooet along Highway 99 after a “lengthy binge of drinking” following a friend’s funeral.
“It was a clear, sunny day. The cyclists were fully within their own lane,” Justice William Ehrcke said Friday, reading his decision. “The reason for the accident was that Mr. Alec was impaired by alcohol.”