Eleven impaired driving conviction earns 15-month sentence

A Niagara Falls man who logged his 11th impaired driving-related conviction after he got behind the wheel of a backhoe and slammed into the side of a van driven by a pregnant woman will spend the next 15 months behind bars.

Defence lawyer V.J. Singh had asked the judge to consider a six-month jail term followed by house arrest, saying his client, James Meaghre, is 65 years old and suffers from various health issues.

“He’s very fearful of going to jail and not coming back out,” Singh told Judge Peter Wilkie on Friday in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

Assistant Crown attorney Richard Monette argued a conditional sentence, where the defendant would serve his sentence at home and not in jail, would not be an appropriate disposition.

“His readings were two-and-a-half times the legal limit. The record is horrible,” Monette said.

“The public would be outraged if this man was given a break,” he said, citing Meaghre’s high blood/alcohol reading at time of this arrest and his “horrible” record. The judge agreed. “This is a very serious example of impaired driving,” Wilkie said before imposing the 15-month sentence. “There was an accident, a potentially life-threatening accident.”

Court was told Meaghre had downed “five double rums” on the afternoon of July 19, 2015 before driving an excavator through the intersection of Morrison Street and Crysler Avenue and T-boning a minivan driven by a Welland woman.

The 32-year-old woman, who was six-months pregnant, did not suffer any serious injuries but was taken to hospital for observation because of her condition.

Meaghre also escaped serious injury. A subsequent breath test determined he had more than two-and-ahalf times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Court heard Meaghre, who had been a heavy equipment operator for years, was doing a friend a favour when the collision occurred.

Court heard Meaghre has 10 previous impaired driving-related convictions, dating back to 1969. He was banned from driving in 2007 after his ninth impaired driving-related conviction.

“He probably drinks meaningfully every day,” the judge said. “He has a serious addiction.”

Singh said his client has been sober since the day of the crash, “except for one slip. He really is genuinely remorseful,” the lawyer said.