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Driver pleads guilty to causing death of two UBC students

Tim Carl Robert Goerner was charged with six counts including dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving.
Richmond Provincial Court 2
Richmond Provincial Court

A man charged in a fatal car accident that killed two UBC students in 2021 has pleaded guilty.

Tim Carl Robert Goerner appeared in Richmond Provincial Court on Oct. 16 to plead guilty to causing the deaths of Evan Smith and Emily Selwood.

RCMP announced last September that Goerner was charged with six counts related to impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving.

Smith and Selwood, who were 18 years old, were struck and killed by a vehicle while walking on a sidewalk near Northwest Marine Drive just before 2 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2021.

In statements issued last year, the students’ parents said their hearts “will forever be broken” and although they hoped the “individual responsible will be brought to justice on fact and evidence with a successful conviction,” it would not “bring Emily and Evan back.”

Goerner’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6 in Richmond Provincial Court.

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