Seventeen years after a crash that claimed the life of Fabian Campbell, Checker Hall resident Renaldo Ricardo Skinner has been ordered by the High Court to pay a $7 500 fine for causing death by dangerous driving.
Skinner pleaded guilty to causing Campbell’s death by driving a motor vehicle on the Warleigh section of the Ronald Mapp Highway, at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public, on August 22, 2008.
As she made the ruling in the No. 5 Supreme Court, Justice Pamela Beckles said: “In sentencing you, the court notes the harm caused by an offence that results in a person’s death is immeasurable and recognises that the sentence imposed can never be a measure of the value put on the life of the victim, in this case, Fabian Campbell.”
“After a thorough examination of all the circumstances of this particular case, including the 17-year delay in having the matter adjudicated, I do not consider that this offence at this stage warrants your incarceration to prison and therefore substitute the remaining sentence of imprisonment with a substantial fine.”
Skinner, who was 32 at the time, was driving a motor car travelling along the Ronald Mapp Highway and overtook two vehicles, while Fabian Campbell was travelling in the opposite direction with his young son in the car.
Skinner drove directly into the path of Campbell’s vehicle, causing him to pull his car further to the left, striking an embankment and losing control of the vehicle, before swerving onto the other side of the road and going over the railings.
Campbell died on the spot and the cause was ruled to be severe traumatic head injury. His son survived.
The judge highlighted the nature and gravity of the offence, as a life was lost and another was injured, that Skinner’s driving fell below the standard expected of a competent and careful driver, his total disregard for the presence of other drivers on the road, and the impact on the family of the deceased — particularly his mother and son — and reached a four-year starting point.
Noting that his over 20 traffic convictions prior to the incident suggested that he is “an indisciplined person who totally disregards the rules enacted to ensure safety on the roads of Barbados” and that he was deemed as posing a high risk of re-offending, the judge made a downward adjustment of the starting point by two years due to his guilty plea and the delay.
Informing him that if the case had been dealt with sooner he would have served a custodial sentence, the judge ordered that he pay $3 000 of the fine immediately and the balance within six months. If he fails to do so, Skinner will have to serve the alternative of 18 months at Dodds Prison.
The case will be reviewed on July 30.
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