6 Tough Sentences For Impaired Driving

April 19, 2016, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

A recent spate of tough sentences for impaired driving has made the news. Here is the top 5 toughest sentences handed down recently.

1. Marco Muzzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a drunk driving crash that killed three children and a grandfather all of the same family. He had faced the possibility of life imprisonment for conviction on his charge of 4 counts of impaired driving causing death. He had a BAC of 0.25 at the time.
2. A 10 year sentence was handed down to Drew MacPherson, a Halifax man who was drunk and speeding when he hit a Halifax taxi head on killing the passenger of the cab. He had a BAC of 0.233 at the time.
3. Boyd Atkinson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing the mother of two after driving impaired. He had crossed several lanes of traffic before hitting the woman head on. He had four previous convictions for alcohol offences. He had a BAC of 0.275 at the time.
4. Lawrence Bush was given a 12 year sentence after he drove drunk. He flipped his car outside Sarnia, Ontario and landed upside down in a creek. He left his friend to drown in the car. He was on bail for an impaired driving charge at the time. His BAC was over 0.24
5. Roger Walsh ran over a woman in a wheelchair on her 47^th birthday when he was out driving impaired. He was an extreme repeat drunk driver with 19 previous impaired convictions, and 114 for assault. Crown prosecutors in Quebec requested he be given ‘dangerous offender’ status but the judge ordered a life sentence instead.
6. Raymond Yellowknee was handed a 20 year sentence for killing a mother and her three young daughters on the day of his release from jail for another offence. The judge also ordered him declared a long-term offender limiting how he serves his sentence.

It is refreshing to see the courts take impaired driving seriously, however for many of these convicted offenders the driving drunk is a symptom of greater problems with addiction. Clearly if one has already been convicted 19 times of impaired driving nothing short of having no access to any motorized vehicle will deter them from re-offending.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

The opinions expressed here, while intended to provide useful information, should not be interpreted as legal recommendations or advice.