A 22-year-old man who sped the wrong way down Highway 427 after a night of drinking, killing a father and daughter in a head-on collision, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and banned from driving for eight years.

“This case is a terrible tragedy for all concerned,” said Superior Court Justice Glenn Hainey as he read his decision to the packed courtroom on Tuesday afternoon.

Sabastian Prosa, 19 at the time of the Aug. 5, 2012 crash, was found guilty on 12 charges, including impaired driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death.

Jayanatha Wijeratne and his 16-year-old daughter Eleesha were killed, and Wijeratnes’s wife, Antonette, was seriously injured. The family were on their way back from a week-long vacation in Florida to celebrate Antonette’s birthday.

Prosa, who has been out on bail since he was charged in 2012, was taken into custody for the first time as his emotional family watched.

During the trial, Prosa had claimed his drink may have been drugged at a downtown club, making him involuntarily intoxicated.

Prosa’s lawyer argued the charges should be stayed because the province-run lab didn’t properly seal Prosa’s blood sample before sending it to an independent lab. The sample leaked, and there was too little left to test.

The judge found that Prosa’s Charter rights were violated by the loss of the blood sample but denied the application to stay the charges.

In making his decision, Hainey found that Prosa, a university student with no past criminal record and the support of his family, is unlikely to offend again and is a good candidate for rehabilitation. Though Prosa did not speak to the court, he expressed remorse for his actions through a pre-sentence report.

Hainey also emphasized the seriousness of this case and the need for deterrence. The Court of Appeal of Ontario has observed that sentences in fatal drunk driving cases have become harsher in recent years, a result of the problem persisting, Hainey noted in his decision.

The Crown had asked for a sentence of eight years, the defence, three years.

Outside court, Antonette Wijernatne and her son Brian criticized the penalties imposed for fatal drunk driving cases in Canada as being too lenient.

“This pattern of carelessness and needless death needs to change. Our laws need to change,” said Brian. “Life in prison sends a clear message that drunk driving has no excuses. It sends a message that getting behind the wheel of a vehicle and killing people is no different than any other kind of murder.”

In a shaky voice, Antonette spoke about the terrible human cost of drunk driving — the loss of half her beloved family, and in a recent crash alleged to be caused by alcohol, the deaths of three young children and their grandfather.

“We never run out of drinking and driving cases. One has to think people aren’t considering this kind of thing might happen when they get behind the wheel,” Crown prosecutor Tom Goddard said following the decision. “They don’t ask themselves what it would look like if someone gets killed. This is what it looks like.”

At Queen’s Park, Premier Kathleen Wynne said the government is open to taking a harder line on drunk drivers as public attitudes toward it evolve, particularly after such “incredibly tragic” events like the Highway 427 crash.

“I’m not going to second guess or comment on a particular sentence that was meted out. What I know is the pain that was felt by this family is permanent and it’s hard to imagine that there would be a way to alleviate that,” she told reporters.

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“We have increased penalties . . . if there are more severe penalties that need to be put in place we will certainly look at that.”