Drunk driver hurt two, jailed 4 months

Man remorseful, offered to speak at high schools

A drunk driver who rolled his speeding car and seriously injured two friends was sentenced to four months in jail Friday.

James McCarthy, 21, had a blood-alcohol level one-anda-half times the legal limit on March 25, 2012, when he lost control of the car he was driving on Innes Road near Frank Kenny Drive. The car flipped on its roof.

The early-morning crash broke a female passenger’s sternum and left a male passenger with a significant gash to his face.

A passenger told police that he saw the speedometer hit 180 km/h before the crash. McCarthy also ran a red light at the corner of Innes Road and Orchardview Avenue.

A remorseful McCarthy pleaded guilty to two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm and a single count of breaching a release condition stemming from an unrelated assault charge.

“You are a young man who made a horrible mistake and you are here today to be held accountable for that mistake,” said Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey.

Perkins-McVey said the injuries suffered by McCarthy’s friends will be a “constant reminder” of the accident for them, but considered McCarthy’s youth, remorse, bright future and chances for rehabilitation when arriving at her sentence.

McCarthy volunteered to speak to students in schools, but Perkins-McVey said even if he told friends about his experience and encouraged them not to drink and drive, some good would be accomplished.

Perkins-McVey said the intermittent 90-day sentence that could be served on weekends that the defence was asking for was not appropriate and settled on a fourmonth sentence followed by two years’ probation.

McCarthy was also banned from driving for two-and-ahalf years.