A driver who drove drunk while driving in the opposite direction and caused a serious collision on Highway 640 in 2020 received eight months in prison.
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Around midnight on November 12, 2020, Karine Barrette, without realizing it, began driving in the eastbound lane of the 640 in Boisbriand on Montreal’s North Shore. However, she was traveling west against the flow of traffic.
The 44-year-old woman, who had twice the legal limit in her blood, was unable to avoid a normally moving vehicle and caused a violent collision.
“The condition she is in means […] that she does not know how to react appropriately when she recognizes her guilt and that she does not have all the means that could possibly have enabled her to avoid the impact,” concluded Judge Éric Côté recently at the Palais de Justice of Saint-Jérôme together.
While the at-fault driver escaped uninjured, the other driver was not so lucky and suffered serious injuries. In order to free him from the vehicle, rescue tongs were required, as the Sûreté du Québec then announced.
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The victim was then hospitalized for three weeks where he underwent surgery for multiple fractures to his pelvis, ribs and foot. She had to relearn how to eat and walk.
The woman, who can no longer practice her profession as a bodybuilder, “runs out of words to express her pain and says she is convinced she is losing her mind,” she said in a letter read out in court.
The injured driver “felt like a ghost in her own body and had lost her humanity. She feels like a part of her is missing,” she continued.
Misjudgment
Karine Barrette pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing injury in September 2022.
Photo from Karine Barrette’s Facebook account
If the defendant recognizes her responsibility, she justifies her actions with “impulsivity,” according to the pre-sentence report.
Instead, Judge Côté described his actions as a “serious error in judgment.”
“The need for denunciation or deterrence is so urgent that imprisonment is then the only appropriate punishment to express society’s disapproval of the defendant’s behavior or to prevent similar behavior in the future,” he clarified.
After her release from prison, Karine Barrette will have to serve a year of probation and will not be allowed to drive for two years.
In this case, the Crown, represented by Me Alexis Faust-Trahan, requested a prison sentence of 18 months. The defense attorney, Me Daniela Velandia, for her part hoped for a temporary prison sentence of 90 days.
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