Woman jailed for dangerous driving
60 days in jail for crash that injured man and his child
KITCHENER — A young Cambridge woman found guilty of two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm in a crash that injured a young girl and the girl’s father has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.
“In this case I cannot ignore the fact that in Waterloo Region, access to the public roadways is a necessity for virtually all of us, every day of our lives,” Justice Scott Latimer said Thursday in sentencing Jasmine Henning.
“People have to get to work, they have to get home and they have to get everywhere in between. Citizens in our community are entitled to be protected from dangerous, reckless drivers.”
Henning will serve the sentence intermittently, from Mondays to Thursdays. The judge banned her from driving for two years, put her on probation for one year and ordered her to pay a $400 victim fine surcharge.
On June 11, 2017, at about 8:40 p.m., Henning’s Mazda 3 and a Hyundai Genesis were speeding south on Water Street North in Cambridge. Several witnesses said they were racing. Latimer concluded the cars were travelling “at or very near” 100 kilometres per hour in a 50 km/h zone.
The Mazda struck a Volkswagen Jetta in the northbound lane near Malcolm Street. An eight-year-old girl in the Jetta needed 20 stitches to close a cut to her forehead. The girl’s father broke a finger.
The crash happened in a mainly residential area 650 metres south of the busy Delta intersection.
The driver of the Genesis, who did not stop after the crash, was charged with stunt driving under the Highway Traffic Act and was fined $2,000.
Although Henning, 24, pleaded not guilty, the judge said he accepts that the first-time offender is remorseful. He said he doubts a jail sentence was needed to deter her but said he must denounce the crime and deter others.
“She thinks about it every day, how that little girl was affected,” defence lawyer Darwin Witmer said. “She feels terrible.”
In sentencing submissions, Witmer said a no-jail sentence could serve as a deterrent, suggesting an “elevated” driving ban of 18 months to two years. He said if the judge believed jail is needed, 60 days should be the maximum.
Crown prosecutor Michael Dean sought 90 days in jail, calling Henning’s actions “dangerous and reckless.”
He said the sentence needed to focus on general deterrence and denunciation.
“Such risky behaviour has the potential to cause serious harm to members of our community, and unfortunately that is exactly what happened here,” Dean said.
“The message needs to be delivered that when you’re out on the road you should be able to expect a moderate degree of safety.”