After years of waiting, the family of Silas O'Brien saw the man responsible for his death sentenced at the conclusion of a trial.

Brent Donald Parent was given five and a half years behind bars by Judge Terence Schultes in May in New Westminster Supreme Court.

Parent was also to be banned from driving for 12 years, a ban that Parent appealed before the year was out.

Saying that he wanted to strike a balance between the Crown's call for an eight-year sentence and Parent's defence attorney's suggestion of a three-to four-year term, Judge Schultes sentenced Parent to four years and six months for criminal negligence causing death, nine months for dangerous driving, and three months for failing to remain at the scene of an accident. The sentences will be served consecutively.

While the sentence fell midway between the Crown and defense positions, the driving ban was far closer to the Crown's request for a 15-year ban.

Schultes noted that a parole board can modify the ban if Parent shows he is making progress, after a considerable portion of it has been served.

Schultes said Parent was totally responsible for his actions.

"No one put him in that situation," Schultes said.

The sentencing was the end of a four-year wait for the family and friends of O'Brien.

The fatal incident took place on March 13, 2008, when O'Brien and two friends were heading to the airport from Abbotsford, heading west on 16th Avenue in South Langley.

They came up behind Parent, who was also heading west in a larger F-350 diesel pickup truck. Parent, apparently upset at their speed, slammed on his brakes.

When the other vehicle tried to pass, he sped up, and then forced the other truck off the road and into a ditch.

O'Brien and his friends, Luke Stephen and Sam Dooley, got out of the truck, shaken but unharmed. But a short time later, Parent's truck returned, swerved toward them, and ran down and killed O'Brien.

At trial, Parent had testified that he wanted to check on the occupants of the other truck, and that the swerve was to aim his headlights, but Schultes rejected that explanation when he convicted the 43-year-old former Langley resident.

Parent had accumulated what the Crown called an "egregious" driving record, with 64 infractions, many of them during his 20s and 30s.

In addition, Parent was actually caught speeding on 16th Avenue, not far from the spot where he ran down O'Brien, on the two-year anniversary of the young man's death. He was driving more than 100 km/h in the 60 km/h zone.

"Mr. Parent has been reminded 64 times in 25 years that his driving habits offended the laws of this province," Crown Donna Ballyk said.

While Parent was arrested not long after the incident - his distinctive truck, with a large rack on the back, was quickly located - it was months before investigators wrapped up their work and he was formally charged.

It then took years to actually come to trial.

mclaxton@langleyadvance.com