Driver in 401 deaths of mother, child gets eight years

Sarah Payne should still be the mother, daughter, friend and “shining star” to whom everyone looked for guidance and encouragement instead of a Highway 401 fatality statistic. Freya Payne might still be racing around in her purple cape that was her arts and crafts award, instead of after her death, becoming a catalyst for concrete barriers on a stretch of Canada’s busiest highway.

And if Hubert Patrick Domonchuk, 54, a Cambridge heavy equipment operator, hadn’t been drinking on Aug. 29, 2017, or driving his pickup truck dangerously on his way home from a Windsor job site, lives of countless people touched by the London mother and daughter wouldn’t have been shattered and he wouldn’t be heading to prison for eight years. “A day does not go by that I don’ t think about the pain I caused you,” the burly man in the white dress shirt said to the grieving family and friends gathered in the St. Thomas courtroom for his sentencing hearing. “My apology will never be enough, but I want you to know how sorry I am.”

Later, Domonchuk, a man with 43 Highway Traffic Act convictions, 22 of them speeding tickets, before he killed the Paynes, was led away in handcuffs, guilty of seven charges, including two counts of impaired driving causing death, two counts of dangerous driving causing death, and one count each of impaired driving and dangerous driving causing bodily harm for the injuries suffered by William Payne, then six.

This was not a case of outrageously high blood-alcohol readings or binge drinking. Domonchuk’s readings taken at hospital after the crash were between 60 and 90 milligrams in 100 millilitres, a range slightly lower and higher that the legal limit of 80 milligrams.

In an eyebrow-raising statement to the author of his pre-sentence report, Domonchuk said, “I do not consider myself to be drunk when choosing to drive that day.” But he had been drinking the night before and had a few drinks before barrelling down the 401 that afternoon, almost running one motorist off the road and giving that driver the finger, then swerving in and out of traffic. In the truck was a half-full bottle of vodka under the front passenger seat and two bottles of Crown Royal whisky in the wheel well. He also had a vial of cannabis resin. Ontario Court Justice George Orsini, in accepting the joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence, said that while Domonchuk had shown remorse, the comment showed“a lack of appreciation posed by an individual whose ability to drive is slightly impaired.”

“No level of impairment is acceptable or safe or legal. That is the lesson here,” he said. Listening to him in the courtroom were people still reeling from the loss of two vibrant, caring souls — a 42-year-old occupational therapist and a five-year-old who loved to dance and was already showing potential for good. The group included Alysson Storey, a longtime family friend from Rondeau Provincial Park, who has since taken the lead in lobbying for concrete barriers along the 120-kilometre stretch of Highway 401 between London and Tilbury. Sarah and Freya Payne died while they were on their way to Rondeau — “our happy place,” Storey described it — when Domonchuk’s pickup slammed into them head-on at 120 km/ h near Dutton. Storey was the first of 11 tearful victim-impact statements read to Orsini that painted the picture of an idyllic family that was loving and compassionate and whose absence has created a black hole in the lives of many.

So deep is that void that widower Michael Payne, medical director of Parkwood Hospital’s amputee rehabilitation program, and Will, who survived the crash, weren’t in court to see the proceedings.