MANDEL: Student pleads guilty to impaired driving crash that killed Toronto electrician
· Toronto Sun
The Chinese international student was drunk and speeding when he lost control of his expensive BMW and killed electrician Fausto Plaza as he walked to the bus stop to start his work day.
“I just hit someone,” Shengquan Wang told his older brother in Mandarin in a conversation captured by an police officer’s body-worn camera. “I think I am screwed. I was driving an M5 CS and it is wrecked. Yes, I may have ruined my life.”
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In a downtown courtroom on Tuesday, Wang pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death after Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell warned his conviction would likely impact his ability to remain in Canada.
To which we can only say good riddance.
On March 11, 2024, after a night of drinking at a downtown party, Wang, 19, and his three friends got into his leased 2022 dark green M5 CS — which retailed then at $165,000. But he had no business being behind the wheel. According to the agreed statement of facts, he only had a G2 licence at the time and was not supposed to have any alcohol in his system.
Vehicle going 50 km/h over limit
Court heard Wang was driving along Lawrence Ave. W. near the Allen Expressway at more than 100 km/h in the 50-km/h zone when he suddenly mounted the curb. Police said he was trying to pass another vehicle when he lost control of his powerful sedan.
It was 5 a.m. and Plaza, 54, had just left home and was heading to catch a bus in the early morning darkness. The journeyman electrician didn’t stand a chance.
The horrific collision was captured on a Toronto Police security camera mounted at the nearby intersection of Lawrence and Varna Dr. Wang’s vehicle struck a guide wire attached to a hydro pole, rotated in a counterclockwise direction and struck Plaza, throwing him into the roadway. The sedan ended up tangled in a fence.
Plaza, the father of a 28-year-old daughter, was rushed to a hospital where he died of blunt-force trauma.
According to the crash data recorder, court heard Wang’s car was travelling at 100 km/h just moments before impact and there was no braking in the five seconds before he struck the pedestrian.
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‘At least he pleaded guilty’
Police at the scene could smell alcohol on his breath and Wang failed the screening device, court heard. Arrested and taken to 23 Division, his eyes were still glassy and he smelled of alcohol three hours after the crash when he registered 109 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood. A toxicology analysis revealed he would have had a blood-alcohol concentration of between 110 and 160 at the time of the collision — up to twice the legal limit.
Plaza’s daughter Jessy was watching on Zoom as Wang was convicted.
“At least he pleaded guilty,” said the 30-year-old new mother as she cradled a cooing baby who will never meet her grandfather. “I feel a little bit more at peace that at least he’s taken responsibility for his acts and he’s conscious of what he did and what he caused.”
She can’t help contrasting her hard-working father and the young driver: Both came here from another country — her father from Ecuador and Wang from China. But where her dad studied hard, became a well-respected electrician and contributed to his new society, this young man arrived and couldn’t abide by the most basic of laws.
“What was this kid thinking?” she wondered. “We’ve all been young and done stuff, but to go out drinking and then drive and not see the consequences? My father always taught me that your acts always have a consequence. I wouldn’t make that kind of mistake.”
Lawyer wants sentencing pushed to February
His lawyer Brian Greenspan told the judge he would like to push the sentencing hearing to February after Wang’s exams.
The victim’s daughter wondered why she must wait.
“I get it, he’s young and has school, but it’s already been over two years. It’s not fair,” she said. “I just want it over.”
Jessy didn’t know what sentence the Crown will ask for, but she trusts the judge to arrive at what is just. She believes Wang is remorseful — at the preliminary hearing, she said he bowed before her while she wept at her first sight of the man who took away her beloved dad.
“I just want him to pay for what he did and to reflect on what he did,” Plaza said.
And then she wants him gone.