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Elderly woman will face court after fatal airport crash

Crown counsel pursues Motor Vehicle Act charges – not criminal charges
99632sidneyAirport-crash-July-29-2011
An RCMP officer takes pictures of the damage that resulted from a crash at the Victoria International Airport on July 29

An elderly woman is charged with driving without due care and attention in a crash that killed a man at the Victoria International Airport last summer.

The charge which falls under the Motor Vehicle Act and is not a criminal charge. The maximum penalty is a $2,000 fine plus six months in jail. The minimum is a $100 fine.

Shirley Murray Zerbin, 82, is scheduled to appear in provincial court on April 26.

Crown counsel decided on the charge after reviewing a report submitted in January by Sidney North Saanich RCMP, who investigated the July 29 crash.

Zerbin is also named along with the Victoria Airport Authority in a civil lawsuit launched by nine people who say they were affected by the crash.

On July 29, a white sedan was driving fast when it went over the curb from the parking lot, across the airport entry road, over a raised green area where it struck a taxi and a table full of people. Seven were injured and one man, Ramesh Sharma, a taxi driver for Yellow Cab for 25 years, was killed.

The vehicle carried on and hit a baggage carrier structure and crossed another stretch of pavement before hitting the airport security building.

“He was a wonderful man,” Yellow Cab president Kuljit Nagra said after the incident. “We are going to miss him big time. He had no enemies and everyone thought very highly of him.”