When the driver convicted in the incident that killed her husband was handed a $500 fine in a Scarborough courtroom last month, Angela Sim had a message for him: the punishment was not nearly enough.

“The penalty you receive here today will not fit the crime but penalty there must be,” Sim said in a victim impact statement read aloud by a Crown attorney.

“You should not be able to walk away untouched. Gary certainly didn’t. He didn’t have a chance.”

Gary Sim, 70, died on July 2, 2017, two days after he was cut off by a van driver while riding his bike.

On Nov. 14, Justice of the Peace Grace Lau found Zivorad Simich, 64, guilty of a non-criminal Highway Traffic Act offence called turn not in safety. The $500 fine she handed gave him was the maximum penalty allowed by law.

In an emotional scene that played out in the courtroom at 1530 Markham Rd., Crown Attorney Jamie MacPherson read out the victim impact statements from Sim’s widow and their daughter Heather, and a tearful Simich apologized to the family for what he said was an incident that would haunt him forever.

And even as lawyers and Lau sought to determine the strictest penalty the driver could face, none disputed that whatever it was it paled in comparison to the devastation caused to Sim’s loved ones.

“The court realizes there is no penalty I could impose that could compensate for the loss suffered by the grieving family,” Lau said, according to a transcript of the proceedings.

The deadly incident occurred at the south entrance of the Jane Park Plaza in the Rockcliffe Smythe neighbourhood of west Toronto.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Sim was riding his bike westbound on the sidewalk of Alliance Ave. Simich, who was also headed westbound in a Ford Transit cargo van, passed Sim and then made a last-second decision to turn into the plaza directly in front the cyclist, according to Lau’s ruling. Sim fell to the ground and suffered a serious head wound.

During a two-day trial, a police collision reconstructionist testified he couldn’t determine for certain whether there was contact between the bike and the van, but one eyewitness attested there was.

No proof of contact was required to establish the unsafe turn charge.

Simich pleaded not guilty. He said he braked and signalled before turning, and couldn’t explain why he failed to see Sim either as he passed him or when he checked his mirror before making the turn. The court heard the van he was driving had no rear windows.

Lau determined there was “no reasonable excuse” for Simich’s failure to see Sim.

“He ought to have seen the cyclist and ought to have taken into account that the cyclist might enter into his path before he turned,” she said in her ruling. She concluded that while he acted “without intention or willfull conduct,” Simich’s behaviour fell “below the standard expected of a reasonable and prudent driver in the circumstances.”

After Lau delivered her verdict, Simich’s lawyer didn’t contest the Crown seeking the maximum fine. Lau had to recess the court while she and the lawyers attempted to ascertain whether legislation passed in December 2017 that increased fines for some offences under the Highway Traffic Act to $1,000 could be applied to the case, but eventually concluded $500 was the maximum. Simich was given 60 days to pay.

In her victim impact statement, Angela Sim described her husband of nearly 45 years as a caring partner and father who was close with his six grandchildren. A former chartered accountant, he shared his skills by helping friends and family with renovations, and volunteering to tutor math at a public school.

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He was an experienced cyclist, and in his later years often took to Twitter to advocate for better road safety.

Angela said in her statement that after he died, she sold their home because she couldn’t bear to live in it alone.

“I’m told it gets easier with time, at this moment I would not agree. Death changes everything but time changes nothing ... I miss him as much today as I did the day he died,” she said in her statement.

“Gone is the light of my life.”

Simich told the court that following the incident he has been on medication for depression. After the ruling he asked to address the Sim family, and in a halting apology he told them he was “truly sorry for what happened.”

“I cannot say I know how much you suffered, I can’t … I am truly sorry … I apologize,” he said.

In an interview after the ruling, Heather said she was relieved to see Simich didn’t take her father’s death lightly, but she still believes drivers convicted in fatal collisions should face heavier penalties than mere fines.

Under the previous Liberal government, the province introduced harsher penalties for careless and distracted driving, but they wouldn’t have applied this case because Simich was charged with a lesser offence.

Heather has become a road safety advocate in the wake of her father’s death, and supports the Ontario NDP’s so-called “vulnerable road user law.” The bill, which was introduced last month and has passed first reading, would subject any driver who injures or kills a pedestrian or cyclist to a mandatory probation order that would require them to take a driving instruction course and serve community service. The driver’s licence would be suspended during the probation period.

The new Conservative government said last week it is still reviewing the legislation and has not decided whether to support it.