My dad lost his life: Family reacts to 7-year prison term for wrong-way impaired driver [Video]

An Oshawa, Ont., judge has sentenced a man to seven years in prison and a 14-year driving ban after he drove impaired and at excessive speed the wrong way down Highway 401, killing one person and seriously injuring someone else.

Shamar Gilkes, out on bail since four days following the crash, was taken into custody at the Oshawa courthouse Wednesday after Ontario court Justice Peter West imposed the sentence.

The Crown attorney asked the judge to consider an eight-year prison sentence, while Gilkes’s defence lawyer suggested a four-year prison sentence.

“I recognize this is a long sentence. Your conduct was exceedingly egregious,” West told Gilkes before the first-time offender was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom to begin serving his time.

On Dec. 30, 2022 around 5 a.m., Gilkes drove eastbound onto a westbound off-ramp in Pickering.

Video obtained by police from the Liverpool Road overpass shows a vehicle …