An RCMP officer, Cpl. Benjamin Robinson, accused of killing a motorcyclist and then fled the scene has failed to have a driving ban lifted.  As always, of late, when dealing with the RCMP there is a veil of half-truths, misdirections and indications that the punishment likely will not fit the crime.

An RCMP officer, Cpl. Benjamin Robinson, accused of killing a motorcyclist and then fled the scene has failed to have a driving ban lifted.  As always, of late, when dealing with the RCMP there is a veil of half-truths, misdirections and indications that the punishment likely will not fit the crime.

RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Robinson was off-duty when his vehicle collided with a motorcycle ridden by 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson, on Saturday October 25th, 2008 in Delta, B.C.  Hutchinson was thrown from his motorcycle and was pronounced dead at the scene.  Robinson later failed a breathalyzer test, and was banned from driving and suspended with pay.

An adjudicator to the superintendent of motor vehicles imposed the ban, but Robinson filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court seeking a judicial review of the ban.  Robinson claimed that the adjudicator had erred in numberous ways, including failing to consider his post-driving consumption of alcohol.  That’s an interesting statement.

Witnesses said, Cpl. Benjamin Robinson, the driver of the Jeep, who had two children in his vehicle, left the scene of the collision.

Delta police arrested Robinson, who admits to fleeing the scene, having two shots of vodka, then returning to the scene to face arrest.

Upon his arrest Robinson was taken to the Delta police station, where he was given a breathalyzer test.  This means that Robinson freely asserted his post-driving consumption of alcohol potentially to the point of failing the breathalyzer test administered at the Delta police station.

It’s an important admission, because there is no reason to believe that Robinson was intoxicated when his jeep struck and resulted in the death of Hutchinson.  Or given this officer’s history, that Robinson only had two shots of vodka, before returning to the scene of the fatality.  This is not Robinson’s first brush with what could most charitably called “poor judgment resulting in death”,  Robinson was one of four RCMP officers involved in the death of Robert Dziekanski, the result of repeated shocking by taser, at the Vancouver International Airport.

In a phone conversation, a member of an unrelated detachment who wishes to remain anonymous was surprisingly candid, “If you were trying to lessen your sentence in a situation like this, the first thing you would do is flee the scene and drink as much [alcohol] as possible.  You’re chances are better as a drinking driver.”

The idea being to lessen one’s culpability by appearing to have been intoxicated at the time of the fatality.  Robinson may not have intented to hit Hutchinson, but there certainly was intent to flee the scene and minimize the effects of his lethal actions.

In a small justice, a decision released March 3rd, 2009 by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan found that, due in part to “inconsistency” in Robinson’s statement at the scene, there was no basis to overturn the ban on his license.  At this point a police investigation into Cpl. Benjamin Robinson’s actions leading to Orion Hutchinson’s death is continuing, yet criminal charges have not been laid.  My heart goes out to Hutchinson’s survivors, I wish I was confident that Cpl. Benjamin Robinson will be brought to justice.

News Sources Referenced:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Mountie+fails+have+driving+lifted/1350887/story.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/10/29/bc-mountie-crash-named.html
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090304/BC_Benjamin_Robinson_driving_090304?hub=BritishColumbia