Nearly seven years after allegedly leaving a woman for dead on a highway north of Whistler, a logging truck driver has been found responsible for the accident.
In the years since a hit-and-run driver left Patricia Anne Peters for dead on a highway north of Whistler, B.C., in the middle of an October night, she has faced plenty of hard choices.
Stay angry at a stranger who left her in a wheelchair or try to be positive. Drink and party like she used to or clean up. Look to the future or stay stuck in the past.
The 39-year-old mother of two celebrated six years of sobriety last week. And to her amazement, she also saw a B.C. Supreme Court judge hold a man responsible for her injuries.
Now Peters faces perhaps her toughest challenge yet: finding a way to forgive logging truck driver Glen Bird.
“I don’t want to hold on to hatred toward him because this is my body, this is my spirit,” said Peters.
“I want to be able to just forgive him and let it go and move forward from here because it’s in the past and there’s nothing I can do about it. But I can move forward and try to make my situation the best I can.”
A red pack of cigarettes
Although Peters won her court battle in February, the written decision finding Bird liable for running over her was only posted this week.
Bird has never been charged criminally, but Justice Lance Bernard found circumstantial evidence convincing enough to level a civil court judgment against Bird and the company he worked for at the time of the hit-and-run. They have been assessed 75 per cent liability for damages caused to Peters.
The dollar amount of the damage has yet to be assessed.
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, which provided coverage for the driver and was also a party to the suit, is appealing the ruling.
Bird could not be reached for comment.
Peters has no memory of the accident. She admitted in court to being “pretty intoxicated” after attending a party in Mount Currie, 40 kilometres northeast of Whistler, on the night of Oct. 16, 2013.
She was walking home along Highway 99 to the tiny nearby community of D’Arcy. The unlit road runs a single lane in either direction in that area. Peters blacked out close to midnight and woke up in Vancouver General Hospital with most of the bones on the left side of her body broken.
She remember little from that night. But she did recall what tu