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Canada’s top court has ordered a new trial for a man acquitted of dangerous driving charges in a crash that killed a B.C. toddler.
Seyed Moshfeghi Zadeh drove through a red light at the intersections of Smithe and Hornby streets in downtown Vancouver on July 6, 2021.
He struck another vehicle, flipping his own car onto the sidewalk where it struck and killed Ocean Oshi Noelle and seriously injured her father.
A provincial court judge acquitted Moshfeghi Zadeh in 2024, ruling that his actions, while dangerous, were a “momentary lapse” in attention.
Ocean Oshi Noelle was killed by a car jumping the sidewalk in July 2021. (Star J.)
The judge concluded his actions didn’t rise to conduct that departed markedly from the standard of care that a reasonable driver would have exhibited in the same circumstances, a factor necessary to convict him of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
A majority on the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s ruling.
But in a five-four decision handed down on Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned that decision, sending the case back for a fresh trial.
The top court ruled that the trial judge had incorrectly treated the momentary lapse as presumptively non-criminal by failing to consider the totality of circumstances, including the busy downtown context and the stale red light.
A new trial date has yet to be set.