A celebration of life, and then a drunken crash

— After drinking at a celebration of life for a friend killed in a car crash, a man injured himself and two others when his vehicle slammed into a minivan.

Jacob Douglas, 24, of New Dundee pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. He had more than twice the legal amount of alcohol in his blood.

“Earlier in the evening he was at a celebration of life for one of his closest friends who was killed in a motor vehicle collision the night before, unrelated to alcohol,” defence lawyer Malcolm McRae told Kitchener court.

“He had driven to that event and he had plans to be picked up and brought home that evening. He can’t explain getting behind the wheel or the tragic consequences that flowed from it.”

McRae said Douglas “doesn’t specifically recall the collision.”

On Aug. 15, 2019, he was driving a Ford Fusion northbound on Oxford Road 5 in Wilmot Township. Just before 10 p.m., Douglas failed to slow down and struck the rear of a Dodge Caravan at a stop sign at the intersection of Punkeydoodles Avenue, near New Hamburg.

A couple and three young children were in the minivan. The two adults were taken to hospital.

The woman had “intense and disabling neck pain and upper back pain,” Crown prosecutor Sandra Kent said. “She was under chiropractic care for four months.”

The man briefly lost consciousness in the crash, Kent said. He also required extensive chiropractic treatment. Douglas had a shoulder injury. The rear end of the Caravan had “massive damage,” Kent said, and the front end of the Fusion was “destroyed.”

“Due to the force of the impact, Douglas’s motor vehicle continued through the intersection and collided into a third motor vehicle that was facing southbound at the stop sign on Oxford Road 5,” Kent said. No one in that vehicle was injured.

A police officer smelled alcohol on Douglas’s breath. His eyes were bloodshot.

“Douglas indicated he had a couple of beers at a friend’s residence earlier that evening,” Kent said.

Tests showed he had 180 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.

A sentencing date will be set later this month. Douglas has no prior record.

“I can provide significant positive background information in relation to my client,” McRae told Justice Thomas McKay. “He’s a good kid from a good family.”