Vehicular Homicide

"...one of the most serious offences in the Criminal Code ... The commission of such an offence involves a high level of moral culpability..." B.C. Provincial Court Judge Peder Gulbransen

We popularly think of young people, carefree and omnipotent, feeling they are capable of being in full control at all times, regardless of the reckless behaviour they engage in. It is not necessarily so. Older people, those past middle life, whom one might suppose life sufficiently engaged to teach those lessons of responsibility and care for others around them, also are capable of wreaking social damage through their insouciant attitudes revolving around drinking and driving.

A 58-year-old woman, once herself a mother of a young child, guilty of the gross stupidity of mixing alcohol and driving. Carol Berner was found guilty of impaired driving, causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. She was responsible in May of 2008 of a crash that killed a four-year-old child, Alexa Middelaer.

Ms. Berner drove her vehicle in Delta, British Columbia, losing control of the car, travelling at 91 km/h, before she crashed. Aside from killing the little girl - who was with her aunt who had stopped her own car in which the child's grandparents were seated in the back and were injured - the aunt, Daphne Johanson was severely injured. The result of this ill-fated decision to drink and drive killed a child, injured her aunt, and also the child's grandparents.

A family tragedy of immense proportions resulted from one woman's selfish disregard for public safety. The child was happily unaware of danger, completely involved in the moment, feeding a horse at the side of the road. That innocent scene was swiftly transformed to one of chaotic and brutal disintegration; the loss of a child, severe injury to three adults. The judgement sufficient unto the day; the driver left the courtroom two years later in handcuffs, sentencing pronounced.

In obvious recognition of the immensity of the tragedy, Ms. Berner made a statement of profound regret: "I am responsible for the death of your precious little girl. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Alexa and how intensely you must be missing her." She said she intended to never again drive a car. She said what had occurred compelled her to stop drinking. She said she now suffers nightmares: "The effects of my actions are serious and have not gone without punishment."

She has been sufficiently punished, is the implication. One cannot doubt her sincerity. Her own deeply realized sorrow at how her carelessness impacted so horribly on the lives of complete strangers, changing their lives irreversibly, creating a deep hollow of devastation, attests to the level of her remorse.

Her sentence was delivered by Justice Gulbransen, and it must have been a surprise to Ms. Berner; 2-1/2 years in prison.

Ms. Berner's lawyer explained that his client was 'upset' about the sentence meted out to her. "I didn't think jail was the right answer. His honour thought differently, we'll see what the Court of Appeal has to say", he said. He would commence immediately to file appeal papers, and will seek to have Ms. Berner released on bail pending her appeal result.

It seems reasonable to think at this juncture that Ms. Berner now fully realizes the seriousness and the impact of her rash judgement over two years ago.