'I'll never stop asking why,' father of 2 Vaughan kids killed by teen driver tells sentencing hearing
CBC
Neil Chaudhari was standing in his garage last May when his life was changed forever.
Hearing the sound of tires screeching, he ran to find two of his children seriously injured from a speeding car that had lost control and struck them.
"I froze and I look up and a car is in the air, and I jump up then and I see bodies on the floor," Chaudhari said Tuesday afternoon at the Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket. That's where a sentencing hearing took place in the judge-alone trial for the 17-year-old accused driver, who cannot be identified due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Chaudhari's was one of several victim impact statements read aloud in court Tuesday.
"I picked up Jax and gave him to my wife," he continued. "Jax was coughing up blood on my wife's lap."
It's a memory that Chaudhari says haunts him relentlessly, forcing him to consider if there was anything he could have done to prevent it.
"I'll always wonder why. Why them, why not me? What did I do to my family? Why did my family deserve this?" he said.
"I'll never get answers, but I'll never stop asking why."
Chaudhari also spoke about what followed: the desperate attempt by hospital staff to save the children and the moment when first his son, then daughter, died of their injuries.
"We were lying next to him when his little arm dropped," he said. "Her last breaths haunt me ... those breaths are painful."
It was around noon on May 16, 2021 when tragedy struck.
Anaya, 10, and Jax, 4, were playing in their driveway on Athabasca Drive, near Dufferin Street and Teston Road in Vaughan. They were joined by their 60-year-old neighbour, who was helping them fix a bike.
According to an agreed statement of facts, the accused was speeding in a black Mercedes, reaching 102 km/h a half second before the vehicle struck the curb. That's when the car launched into the air, striking the curb, then the children and neighbour.
The siblings were rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Both died in hospital the next day. The male neighbour was also taken to hospital with minor injuries.
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