Man who caused serious crash sentenced
Daniel Leith Stewart pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm
Daniel Leith Stewart was late for a wedding when he hit an SUV after running a stop sign at more than 100 km/h.
On Tuesday, a judge sentenced him to one year of house arrest after causing the accident that sent his passenger to hospital with broken bones, a brain injury, punctured lungs and a fractured skull that needed a metal plate to fix.
Stewart, 31, appeared before Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Nathan Beck told the court that on Aug. 23, 2019, at around 3:50 p.m., Stewart was driving a Toyota Yaris when he ran a stop sign in Anglo Rustico and hit an SUV that had two people in it.
The Yaris rolled several times before coming to a stop.
Ambulances took Stewart, his passenger and the two people in the SUV to hospital.
Stewart’s passenger had to be transferred to Halifax where she was treated for severe injuries that included punctured lungs along with fractures to ribs, her collarbone, her pelvis and her skull.
The driver of the SUV had four fractured ribs.
Beck said Stewart told an RCMP officer at the scene that he was late for a wedding and didn’t know the area.
The court heard that a data recorder on Stewart’s vehicle showed he was going more than 100 km/h at the time of the accident in an area where the speed limit was 60 km/h.
Alcohol was not a factor in the crash.
Stewart’s passenger spoke in court Tuesday and read her victim impact statement as she talked about the accident changing her life forever, although she said she has no memory of it.
The woman said she doesn’t feel like herself physically or emotionally, and her injuries brought on anxiety and depression.
“My brain injury affects me every single day,” she said.
In reading her statement, the woman said the main thing she remembers from her time in hospital is the pain.
“I truly never knew what real pain was until that day.”
The court heard that since the accident, the woman hasn’t been able to work and she said she lost her independence.
Before hearing his sentence, Stewart read an apology letter he wrote to the woman, saying he couldn’t put into words how sorry he was.
Not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about her, he said before also apologizing to the other two victims.
“I’m sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen,” he said.
In sentencing Stewart, Orr followed a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence of a oneyear conditional sentence, which included house arrest.
Stewart is banned from operating any motorized vehicle during the conditional sentence, he must complete a driver rehabilitation course and he will be subject to a two-year driving prohibition once his sentence is complete.
He must also pay a $1,000 fine and a $300 victim surcharge.