Operation Christmas returns for another year
SYDNEY — Reliving the physical and emotional pain she experienced after being involved in a motor vehicle accident that killed her aunt by sharing her story with others is difficult but important, Nikayla Bramwell said.
On Friday, as the annual Operation Christmas campaign was launched in Sydney, the Glace Bay high grade 12 student shared her experience with an audience of police officers, paramedics and others, telling her story in public for the first time.
“I want people to realize that drinking and driving is not OK and that it ruins people’s lives,” Bramwell said, following her speech.
Operation Christmas strives to reduce impaired driving and encourages motorists to drive safely over the holiday season.
Bramwell was a passenger in her aunt’s car when she was injured in a two-vehicle car crash on Grand Lake Road, near the Kytes Hill turnoff, on Dec. 2, 2010. The accident killed her aunt, 30-year-old April Claire Bramwell, a nurse.
In June, 37-year-old Leo Stewart O’Donnell of Lorne Street in Sydney was sentenced Tuesday to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to two impaired driving-related offences. He had pleaded guilty to charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm.
The court had heard that the vehicle driven by O’Donnell was heading toward Glace Bay when it crossed the centre line on the four-lane highway and crashed into Bramwell’s vehicle, which was heading into Sydney.
Bramwell said she was very close to her aunt, who was suppose to get married in 2011. Bramwell described herself as heartbroken and confused in the wake of the fatal crash.
She noted that she met other survivors who had similar experiences during a national conference in Toronto and she wants to speak out on their behalf as well.
Bramwell presented a victim impact statement during O’Donnell’s statement, and he apologized to the family.
“It was really hard, I kept saying I was going to pull it together and I just broke down and cried,” she said. “He was also crying too so I know he was sorry for what he did,” she said. “I’m not mad at him for anything . . . I’m just upset that his decision left me with a back injury and my aunt’s deceased because of it.”
Susan MacAskill, director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Atlantic, noted two members of her family were killed due to separate impaired driving incidents. Her brother-in-law was killed after he made the choice to get behind the wheel while impaired while her father was killed after an impaired driver struck his vehicle.
In the past year, 1,200 Canadians have died and thousands of others have been injured in drug and alcohol-related crashes, MacAskill said.
“Despite everything that we’ve done in the last few years, it still remains the number one criminal cause of death in our country,” she said, adding she hopes the province will be able to report an incident-free Christmas season this year.
Cape Breton Regional Police Chief Peter McIsaac said the goal of the Operation Christmas campaign is to encourage safe driving practices. He urges people to stay sober when getting behind the wheel. Geoff MacLellan, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and MLA for Glace Bay, said it’s an important message that must be spread across the province.