A Sarnia driver may face prison after his SUV and a female cyclist collided while he had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, leaving her in a wheelchair and barely able to walk.
A Sarnia driver may face prison after his SUV and a female cyclist collided while he had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, leaving her in a wheelchair and barely able to walk.
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Court heard Azemine Shala, 49, was out for a Sunday afternoon bike ride with her husband on London Road, between Afton and Finch drives, about 2 pm Oct. 30, 2022.
About the same time, Wesley Irvine, 27, drew the attention of motorists as he sped, swerved and changed lanes on the same road in a 2007 Honda SUV.
Irvine abruptly turned right into the London Road plaza featuring an East Side Mario’s and a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and cut off Shala, who smashed into his passenger’s side door and hit the ground.
“She instantly felt pain in her back and down her legs and was unable to move,” assistant Crown attorney Aniko Coughlan said while reading an agreed statement of facts.
Multiple videos of the crash, caught on surveillance cameras at a nearby auto dealership and a coin-op car wash, were shown in court.
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Irvine, who recently pleaded guilty to one count of impaired driving causing bodily harm, had no idea there’d been a crash. He kept driving into the plaza searching, unsuccessfully, for the drive-thru entrance of a nearby Taco Bell.
He made a few frantic maneuvers as several motorists who’d witnessed the collision tried to confront him – he wasn’t fleeing because he didn’t know what had happened – and eventually blocked his vehicle in until police arrived.
Irvine, who told Sarnia police Const. Noah Tardif he had two beers earlier, failed a roadside breath test and was arrested. Tests at headquarters showed he had between 230 and 240 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millimeters of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrams.
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Back at the crash scene, Sgt. Daun-Mari Price of the forensics team saw a large dent in the passenger’s side of his vehicle and a beer can in the back.
Shala was taken to Bluewater Health, then transferred to hospital in London. She spent five months in hospital dealing with a broken vertebra, decreased sensation in her lower limbs and lower back pain.
Discharged more than a year ago, Shala endures constant pain, still struggles to walk and uses a wheelchair or walker for day-to-day activities because she can only take a few steps at a time.
“It is not anticipated that she will ever fully recover,” Coughlan said.
Shala and her husband, who’ve moved to Toronto for her physical therapy, are expected to give victim-impact statements when Irvine is sentenced later this year. A date will be picked in September.
Defense lawyer Terry Brandon told Superior Court Justice Kelly Gorman her client, who has no prior criminal record, hopes she can persuade her to impose house arrest.
“We do know that’s a very steep climb with the case law and the facts and what’s happened here in terms of the injuries and the high readings,” she added.
Coughlan did not say what sentence she’ll seek.
Almost exactly one year ago, a Walpole Island man was sentenced to six years in prison for killing two cyclists while his blood alcohol was triple the limit.
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