Kitchener Firefighter Sentenced For Killing Bystander

Witnesses said the firefighter was speeding when he swerved, striking and killing a man who was trying to help a crash victim

By Brian Caldwell
The Waterloo Region Record

KITCHENER, Canada — A volunteer firefighter with glowing character references was sentenced Friday to six months of house arrest for killing a bystander while speeding to an accident scene.

Justice Colin Westman considered giving Justin Szusz only probation for dangerous driving causing death in connection with the Sept. 2, 2007, fatality on Huron Road in Wilmot Township.

But he said Szusz, 25, severely undermined his remorse by speeding again while awaiting trial for killing Thomas Walker, a respected family man who was trying to help a teenager trapped in his car.

"I would have thought with your sterling character that it would have been the last time you ever sped — but it wasn't," Westman told Szusz in a courtroom crowded with relatives and supporters on both sides.

The New Dundee man will only be allowed out of his parents' home during his conditional sentence to go to work, church, counselling and other appointments, and for four hours on Saturdays to attend to personal business.

He was also banned from driving for a year, placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service. For two years of the probation term, his driving will be restricted.

Walker, 53, was described as a trusted, caring man by relatives who gave victim impact statements in Kitchener court.

He owned a hobby farm near the crash site with his wife, Linda Barton, was the father of two grown sons, Brodie and Jordan, and had worked for Bell Canada as a manager for 32 years.

"It's as if the shell of my life is left, but everything inside was stolen," Barton said of her struggle to go on.

Szusz, a devout Christian who volunteered with young people at his church, was driving his own vehicle to the scene where a teen crashed his car into a tree.

Walker was walking down the road to help the trapped victim, 19-year-old Robert Miller of Kitchener. Szusz crested a hill and saw fire trucks parked on each side of the road just ahead, leaving only a narrow space where firefighters were walking.

Unable to stop, Szusz slammed on his brakes, swerved toward the ditch and hit Walker. Witnesses estimated his speed on the rural road at 120 km/h.

"He drove at such an excessive speed that his car became a lethal weapon that day," said Crown prosecutor Karey Katzsch.

Szusz pleaded not guilty, but was convicted after Westman found he was driving too fast as he approached the accident scene without knowing its exact location.

Westman went to great lengths during the sentencing to explain his reasoning — and the limits of the law to compensate for such tragedies — to Walker's family.

He called their statements "unbelievably moving," noting details such as the fact that Barton, who was with her husband when he was killed, couldn't even cross the road in front of her home in the months afterwards.

"I struggle to be free of the images and sounds of that morning," Barton said.

Westman said he couldn't lose sight of the fact, however, that Szusz is an otherwise "outstanding young man" who was driving to the crash trying to help save a life, not take one.

If not for his subsequent speeding ticket, which showed Szusz still hadn't learned his lesson, he said he would have imposed probation - the least severe penalty available.

Barton said outside court that she appreciated his explanation.

She also said she is satisfied with the sentence because it sends a message to firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers that they must drive safely.

"It shouldn't have happened to Tom," she said.

"It should never happen to anybody else."

Defence lawyer Tom Brock argued others were also to blame for the death because an emergency vehicle wasn't posted at the top of the hill to warn motorists of the danger ahead.