Photo: Kate Bouey

The father of a Kelowna nurse who was killed by a drunk driver in Vernon has a scathing opinion of the court system and how victims and the families of victims are treated.

Brian Smith, a former lawyer, and his wife, Michelle, sat in court Monday to hear sentence passed against Lori Vance, who was three times over the legal limit when her van smashed into a car driven by his daughter, Erin, on Oct. 23, 2014. 

Vance was sentenced to three years in prison.

Erin Smith died before she arrived at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, where she worked, while another nurse in the car, Lindsey Hauck of Vernon, was seriously injured and had to undergo two surgeries. 

“Too light, way too light,” said Brian Smith, as he stood outside the courthouse with reporters. “In B.C., it is just atrocious what they have in the way of sentencing here.

“Anywhere else, it would have been higher. I gave a list of various cases to the Crown dealing with everywhere else in Canada, and (he) never mentioned any of them.”

Smith said he would have prefered Vance receive a five-year sentence, pointing to Hauck's “greatly changed” life.

Smith said Hauck is now deaf in one ear, partially deaf in the other and has a brain injury as well as other physical problems.

“She's no longer going to be able to be a nurse. She's got all kinds of problems ahead of her,” said Smith. “Our life is destroyed without our daughter.... Our daughter has no life. Three years is a joke.”

Smith said, under the old rules, Vance could be released from prison after serving a third of her sentence.

He and his wife waited almost a year after Erin's death for a preliminary hearing, which was then waived, and there was no trial at which he could hear the evidence.

Smith also complained of the deletion of 14 pages of his victim impact statement.

At one point during proceedings, the upset father refused to read the edited statement to the court, but was convinced to do so by a police officer who had attended the crash scene. 

He is considering writing a letter to the Attorney General of B.C.