Drunk driver was fleeing abusive partner, court hears
Rachel Webb, 49, of Gagetown, had three times legal limit of booze in her system when she rolled SUV but tells court she was trying to escape from domestic violence
A Gagetown woman who told a court she was trying to escape from an abusive relationship when she drove drunk and rolled her SUV was ordered to get counselling Wednesday.
Rachel Webb, 49, of Old Mill Road, pleaded guilty in Fredericton provincial court Wednesday to a charge of driving while impaired.
Crown prosecutor Nina Johnsen said an RCMP officer was dispatched to the scene of a single-vehicle accident in Gagetown on Dec. 16, where they found an SUV on its roof in a ditch.
The investigation revealed the vehicle went into one ditch and rolled into another one, court heard, taking out a couple of mailboxes in the process.
Webb had been at the wheel, the prosecutor said.
“[The officer] noted she was incoherent,” Johnsen said, noting there was a smell of liquor coming from her.
“She was swaying while standing still and had to be supported.”
The officer learned from witnesses at the scene that Webb had asked them not to call 911 when the incident occurred, court heard.
Johnsen said to determine Webb’s level of impairment, a blood sample had to be taken. Tests revealed she had 250 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, more than three times the legal limit.
The prosecutor said this marks Webb’s first offence of any kind, but given the level of intoxication and the circumstances of the incident, it appeared there might be an alcohol issue at play.
As such, she asked the court - in addition to a mandatory minimum fine of $2,000 and the minimum driving prohibition of a year - to impose a one-year term of probation including conditions for assessment and treatment for substance abuse.
But defence lawyer Laura Murphy said Webb doesn’t have a drinking problem. Instead, she said, she was using alcohol as a coping mechanism for a different problem: being the victim of abuse.
“Ms. Webb at the time of the offence was in the process of fleeing from a domestic-violence situation,” the defence lawyer said.
“I don’t drink anymore,” the offender told the court. “Not since I left the relationship.”
She said she is on medication for anxiety now.
Murphy agreed with the fine and driving ban as suggested by the prosecution, but said probation wasn’t necessary in the circumstances.
“I know you were in a bad situation,” Judge Lucie Mathurin told Webb, adding that the accident was serious.
She imposed the $2,000 fine plus a customary victim-fine surcharge of $600, and prohibited Webb from driving anywhere in Canada for a year.
The judge imposed the requested 12-month probationary period as well, but she said it wasn’t to direct Webb to get help for drinking. Instead, she said, she made counselling a condition of the order given the trauma due to intimate-partner violence.
“Talking to somebody is not onerous. It’s simply good for you,” Mathurin said.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.