Kendall Wiebe's father happy with Manitoba's new high risk driver law

Art Wiebe hopes no other family will have to go through what his has now that the province is introducing legislation to suspend high-risk drivers' licences more quickly.

Wiebe's daughter Kendall was killed three years ago when Adebola Shoyoye drove into the Ultra-Cuts where she worked.

Another woman was badly injured.

The province of Manitoba is changing legislation that will allow the vehicle registrar to suspend someone's licence if they are charged with a serious driving offence.

In the past, according to Manitoba Public Insurance, a driver would have to be convicted for the registrar to be notified of the offence.

"It's just there was a key element missing and how wasn't this flagged sooner and I'm happy to see now with the changes that flagging will happen," Wiebe said.

Shoyoye also pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, as one of Wiebe's co-workers was injured.

The court heard Shoyoye has a history of traffic offences, including infractions under the Highway Traffic Act.

In total, the Crown said in court Shoyoye has been involved in 11 collisions in the past 10 years, eight of which he was found to be at fault. One of those eight collisions happened after Wiebe was killed, as did two Highway Traffic Act infractions that involved things like speeding.

Wiebe said under the new legislation, the registrar could have suspended Shoyoye's licence so he wouldn't have been able to rent a vehicle and ultimately drive into the shop.

"We're sorry to see that it had to take the loss of a life and also injure another individual for the rest of their life that I'm hoping that some positive action will come out of this so that another family doesn't have to experience what we have to experience," Wiebe said.