A Salmon Arm man will not serve jail time for dangerous driving which resulted in the death of his two teenaged friends on July 12, 2009.
Hunter O. Shantz was issued a six-month conditional sentence with one year of probation and a one-year driving suspension in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, March 21.
Passengers Edward (Austin) Blackburn, 19, and Eric Thomas Higgins, 18, were both killed when Shantz crashed the car he was driving into a utility pole near the intersection of Highway 97B and Black Road. A third passenger in the car, an 18-year-old woman, was also injured in the 2:30 a.m. crash.
Shantz suffered what police described as minor injuries.
While Shantz was charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm, those charges were stayed. He was sentenced on the dangerous driving charge alone.