Drunk driver receives 12-month sentence

Woman fled scene after crashing into man, pinning him to house

The Niagara man can still recall feeling his body “breaking” as a drunk driver pinned him against a house.

“I felt everything breaking inside me,” the man said Wednesday in Ontario Court of Justice in Welland at the sentencing hearing of Nancy Lemay.

“I felt like I was going to die.” Lemay, 49, was sentenced to 12 months behind bars on charges of impaired driving causing bodily harm and failing to comply with a court order.

“I’m sure the sentence that (the victim) is looking for is a reversal of time to reverse everything that happened but, of course, your honour cannot give a sentence that does that,” assistant Crown attorney Henry Limheng told Judge Donald Wolfe.

The incident occurred March 24, 2019, in St. Catharines.

After pinning the man to the house, Lemay fled the scene and was later arrested.

Police determined she had been driving with more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in her system.

The defendant apologized to the victim in court and tearfully told the judge she regrets what happened.

“It’s no excuse,” the Thorold woman said. “I am totally sorry. Nobody deserves that.”

The victim, who now walks with the aid of a walker or cane, said the incident “ruined my whole life.”

He lives with constant pain and, since the incident, his days are filled with multiple medical appointments.

He is plagued by nightmares and flashbacks that force him to relive the incident which left him with a fractured pelvis and other serious injuries.

“I thought she left, then all of a sudden I turned and she had me pinned against the house so hard,” he told the judge via Zoom.

“Then, she released the gas and hammered on it again three more times. I can never ever forgive her.”

Defence counsel Andrew Burton said his client is extremely remorseful for her conduct that day and that her guilty plea spared the victim from having to testify at trial.

“She is very much hoping that when she meets with corrections officials that she’ll be considered for the possibility of serving her sentence at a facility where she’ll get some treatment,” he said.

“The idea is for Ms. Lemay to have the best opportunity to work on herself and come out the other side of the sentence as a better person who will no longer pose a danger that she did then to the community.”

The judge noted the incident has had a dramatic impact on the victim.

“Unfortunately, any penalty that I impose today cannot possibly remedy the physical and emotional suffering that has been caused to (the victim) and his family,” Wolfe said.

In addition to the jail term, the defendant was placed on probation for three years.

“All drinking and driving offences are serious matters and the possibility for property damage and personal injury are all too real as this case demonstrates,” the judge said.

“I felt everything breaking inside me.”

VICTIM OF DRUNK DRIVER