‘We miss Anaya and Jax’: Teen sentenced in 100 km/h crash that killed kids playing in Vaughan driveway

The maximum posted speed on Athabasca Drive where Anaya Chaudhari, 10, and Jax Chaudhari, 4, were killed last year is 40 km/h.

Thestar.com
April 5, 2022
Betsy Powell

A speeding teen driver who killed two children playing in the driveway of their home on a quiet residential street in Vaughan -- as their parents and sister watched in horror -- will be required to live in an open-custody facility for a year.

The 17-year-old, who can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was behind the wheel of his dad’s Mercedes on Athabasca Drive on May 16, 2021, when it hit a curb, launched into the air and struck Anaya Chaudhari, 10, and Jax Chaudhari, 4. They suffered grievous injuries and died at SickKids hospital. A neighbour was also seriously injured.

The vehicle was travelling more than 100 km/h on a sunny Sunday on a street where the posted maximum speed is 40 km/h. He was on his way to see his girlfriend.

Last December, the teen pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Ontario court Judge David Rose said that in addition to residing for a year in an open custody facility -- generally smaller residences located in the community -- he must then also live under supervision in the community for a six-month period. The judge also imposed a six-year driving prohibition.

Rose said a custodial sentence was required so that a “just sanction includes meaningful consequences, which must be connected to the grave harm done to the community in this tragedy. There is a need to denounce this conduct.”

At the time of the crash, the teen driver was 16 and had received his beginner’s permit only a few months before. In 2020, before he was legally licensed to drive, the teen was previously charged with an offence under the Highway Traffic Act, which was later withdrawn. The judge didn’t say what the offence was. But a year before killing the children, the teen wrote a letter “discussing the dangers associated with driving without a licence.”

The judge said that letter showed the teen was aware of “the consequences of driving dangerously.” He also noted numerous mitigating facts, including the teen’s “excellent prospects, his remorse and his guilty plea.”

The teen has been living under house arrest since he was released on $300,000 bail.

Outside the Newmarket courthouse, the victims’ parents described the “indescribable trauma” they continue to experience every day.

Parents Ketan Chaudhari and Binta Patel, white jacket, to speak to reporters media outside the Newmarket courthouse after sentencing of the teen driver who killed their two kids, Anaya and Jax.

“We miss Anaya and Jax, the family we had, and the people we once were,” a tearful Binta Patel, their mother, told reporters.

Their father, Ketan Chaudhari, said grieving family members struggle to accept the devastation and laws “that protect the guilty.” If a 17-year-old is too immature to understand the consequences of his behaviours and actions, “and then is protected under our judicial system, then why did he get the privilege to drive?” he asked.

“How is this different from providing a gun licence to adolescents?”

The family, who don’t get to “wake up from this nightmare,” also acknowledge there are many other victims of dangerous and reckless driving. If the justice system is going to treat juveniles differently, then parents have an added responsibility when it comes to giving their children access to their cars.

“We would like to send a message to all the young drivers out there, cars are not toys. Cars can be deadly weapons. Speed limits and laws are there to be followed and not being able to abide by them is a sign that you are not ready to drive.”

The prosecution asked for a 16-month open-custody order. The defence sought a probation term or, if not probation, a six-month open-custody order.

Emma Rhodes, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in youth court matters -- and who wasn’t involved in this case -- acknowledged that it angers some that youth are treated differently than adults in the criminal justice system.

“But that is because the law tells us we have to. Youth sentencing is focused on rehabilitation and reintegration. Adult sentencing is focused on punishment.”

With youth, the goal is to provide proper supports so that they can turn things around and become law-abiding, taxpaying adults. This is more likely to happen if they can put their criminal past behind them, Rhodes told the Star.

On Monday, Rose read his reasons for sentence inside a packed Newmarket courtroom. At least three dozen people, including a neighbour of the Chaudharis, attempted to watch and listen via Zoom video conference.

After ignoring repeated attempts by Zoom participants who tried to tell him they were unable to hear the proceedings, the clerk responded to Rose’s order to “end the Zoom call immediately.”