Frédéric Garneau, a 20-year-old whose street racing killed two of his three passengers, has been sentenced to three years in jail for his crime.

The judge in the case, Gilles Cadieux, called it a “clear and unequivocal” message to all drivers.

Really? Three years works out to about a year and a half each. The maximum sentence is 14 years. Doesn’t sound very clear, or like they “severely punished” anyone. He’ll also be without a driver’s license for six years. Because his reckless driving killed two people.

Let’s review some facts from the case:

• Garneau was driving with only a learner’s permit
• He was drunk (about five beers)
• His passengers were pleading with him to stop
• Despite his assertions that he was not racing, he was driving fast enough (150 km/h) to have lost control of the vehicle and see the passengers ejected from the car
• Though it’s not made explicitly clear in the article, I imagine the passengers who died were not wearing their seat belts, further putting them at obvious risk

I’m not a lawyer or anything, but the phrase “reckless disregard for human life” sounds appropriate. And even for an (at the time) 18-year-old without a criminal record, three years sounds like far too short a sentence.

Is this what the family of Bianca Leduc have to look forward to?