Nearly a year after two university students were struck and killed on the UBC campus, a 22-year-old has been charged in connection with their deaths.
Two counts each of impaired driving, impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death have been approved against Tim Carl Robert Goerner, authorities announced Thursday.
Online records show Goerner is scheduled to appear in Richmond provincial court on Friday.
The University RCMP detachment also shared the names of the 18-year-old victims for the first time. Evan Smith and Emily Selwood were walking on a sidewalk near Northwest Marine Drive when a vehicle crashed into them in the early morning hours of Sept. 26, 2021.
"This was a difficult and tragic incident," Staff-Sgt. Chuck Lan, commander of the University detachment, said in a news release. "Our thoughts go out to the families of these two students."
The grieving parents issued statements Thursday as well, remembering the deceased as kind and compassionate young adults who both enjoyed camping and being in the great outdoors.
Smith was a talented drummer and a volunteer for Scouts Canada before getting accepted into UBC's engineering program, according to his parents, Debbie O'Day-Smith and Adam Smith.
"As we navigate our lives through our grief, we want Evan to be remembered for the remarkable person he was. Those that knew and loved him no doubt already do that," they wrote.
"He was a loyal friend and a wonderful son and brother. His positive attitude, playful competitiveness and humble disposition left a mark on everyone he came across. We couldn’t be more proud of the young man he became."
Selwood grew up on Vancouver Island, where she was a medal-winning rower in high school before she decided to study social sciences at UBC, her parents Laurie and Duncan Selwood said.
She also had "great capacity for compassion and exemplified kindness," they said.
"Her dedication to service and commitment to helping others led her to work on numerous initiatives, through her school, to help those in need and protect the environment. In everything she did, Emily worked hard to embody her favourite quote by Ian Maclaren: be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle," the Selwoods wrote.
The family also set up a UBC memorial fund in her name, the proceeds from which will help undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts. More than 50,000 had been raised as of Thursday afternoon.
After issuing their statements, both sets of parents asked for privacy.
