Impaired driver gets two-year jail sentence

Woman can’t remember multi-vehicle crash that sent eight people to hospital

Recognizing the dangers of impaired driving, Muriel Buffalo typically ensured a sober driver was available on the occasions when she went out for a drink.

But in the early morning of April 2, 2017, the group’s designated driver left early so Buffalo — intoxicated to the point of blacking out — got behind the wheel to drive herself and several passengers from the King ’s Head Tavern.

Buffalo, 54, recalls little of that night’s events, no memory of even getting into the car. The next thing she recalls, she told the court in a letter, was opening her eyes to a shattered windshield.

Outside the Camaro she was driving were two other crumpled vehicles, each containing badly injured people. Court heard Buffalo was driving an estimated 167 kilometres per hour in the four seconds leading to the three-vehicle collision. There was little evidence of braking in the moments before she slammed into the back of a Ford Fusion at 133 km/h, propelling the car forward into a Ford F150 stopped at a red light at the corner of Fleet Street and Dewdney Avenue. That truck was struck so hard by the chain reaction that it spun and rolled.

Crown prosecutor Chris White said the collision sent eight people to hospital, including Buffalo herself, many with serious injuries. For the two drivers of the other vehicles, their injuries were lifealtering.

“(Buffalo was) fortunate there weren’t a number of funerals that came out of this,” White told the court at the woman’s sentencing on Tuesday.

Buffalo pleaded guilty to three counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. After hearing submissions, Judge Pat Reis agreed to impose the two-year prison term jointly requested by Crown and defence counsel. He also agreed to a request from defence lawyer Christa Weber, recommending Buffalo be allowed to serve the time at the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge in Maple Creek. The custody term will be followed by a three-year driving prohibition.

Buffalo provided details of her life in a lengthy letter to the court, explaining how she first turned to alcohol at age 13 to escape the traumas she endured at residential school. Having witnessed her parents’ alcoholism and its frequently violent results, she quit drinking while she raised her own daughters.

She said she drank only occasionally since, and had gone that night to meet her father at the King ’s Head. By the time the crash occurred, her blood-alcohol level was estimated at .16 — twice the legal driving limit.

Buffalo and several people in her car, including her father, suffered injuries that included broken bones and, for one passenger, a brain bleed. The man in the F150 suffered a debilitating back injury that continued to plague him afterward, while the woman driving the Fusion was left with injuries to her back, neck and head.

That woman, Lisa Price, told the court while providing a victim impact statement that she lost her security job as a result of ongoing fallout from her injuries, which included the development of osteoarthritis in her back and severe dizzy spells. She added the accident led to strain within her family and that she still suffers from nightmares.

“All I see are headlights coming from behind me,” she said. “I still have severe anxiety while driving at night.”

Buffalo offered a tearful apology to the court and to the people she injured, saying she was ready to “pay for what I’ve done.”

In her letter to the court, she wrote in more detail about her thoughts on the crash, stating she “regret(s) every day” what happened to everyone involved.

“Thank God no one was killed,” she wrote. “Sometimes I wish that I had been.”

All I see are headlights coming from behind me. I still have severe anxiety while driving at night.