Man sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for Parkside Drive crash that killed couple

A Burlington, Ont., man has been sentenced to six and half years in prison for causing a crash on a road near High Park in 2021 that killed two people.

Artur Kotula was hunched over when the sentence was read in an Ontario Superior Court of Justice courtroom on Friday. In November, he was found guilty of two counts of dangerous driving causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Valdemar Avila, 71, and Fatima Avila, 69, were rear-ended Oct. 12, 2021 while they were stopped by rush hour traffic at the intersection of Parkside Drive and Spring Road. Valdemar died at the scene, while Fatima died later in hospital.

Superior Court Justice Suhail Akhtar called the deadly crash "a crime of stupidity."

At the time of the crash, Kotula was travelling at over 100 km/h on the street with a 50 km/h limit, according to an accident reconstructionist report submitted to court.

Footage presented at the trial showed that Kotula slammed into the back of the couple's car, causing a chain reaction that prompted three other cars to collide. Two other people in one of the cars suffered minor injuries.

Kotula has been in custody since the crash, which means he has 533 more days left to serve. He is also not allowed to drive for at least 15 years.

Kotula immigrated to Canada from Poland in 2008 and the judge said it's unclear if he might be deported because of his conviction.

Defence lawyer Justin Marchand said his client wishes none of this had happened.

"Mr. Kotula is a stoic individual. He has great remorse for the family. He's also himself suffered as a result of this," Marchand said.

"Like all of us, if he could undo any mistakes that he had made, I believe he would."

Ashley Avila, the couple's daughter, said in an emotional victim impact statement during the trial that her parents were adoring grandparents. They had immigrated to Canada from Portugal in the early 1970s with hopes of building a better life. 

"Their love story blossomed across oceans, culminating in a marriage that I deeply admired," Avila said.

Parkside Drive has long been criticized by residents as dangerous due to heavy traffic and motorists travelling too fast. After the Avilas were killed, the city launched an ongoing study of the street, reduced the street's speed limit from 50km/h to 40 and added speed cameras. 

In November 2024, Toronto city council voted to endorse a plan to add bike lanes to Parkside Drive as part of a larger project to make the street safer. 

Deaths were preventable, safety advocate says

Faraz Gholizadeh, co-chair of community advocacy group Safe Parkside, said on Friday after the sentencing that the deaths of the Avilas were preventable.

Gholizadeh said the reduced speed limit and speed cameras have not greatly reduced speeding on Parkside Drive. The city needs to do more, he said.

"The solution is a simple one. And it's one that they know," he said. "It's to do a complete street design where you prioritize safety, where you take into consideration everything beyond just motor vehicles. Right now, Parkside is just geared towards motor vehicles."

"It's designed so that motorists can drive comfortably fast on the street. And that's just not safe when you have a community safety zone, when you have a park, when you have families and children and seniors, you name it, trying to access this beautiful park of ours and you've built this urban highway dividing the park from the community."