BY KEITH LACEY
A Naughton man who hit a loaded school bus while he was severely loaded from alcohol and then left the scene of the accident managed to avoid a jail sentence Wednesday.
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Barry Johnstone, 48, pleaded guilty to impaired driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
This was JohnstoneÂ?s second impaired driving conviction. His first convicted was seven years ago.
Justice William Fitzgerald reluctanly agreed to a joint submission that Johnstone pay a heavy fine and have his driverÂ?s license suspended for two years for the incident which took place in late June of this year.
Fitzgerald told the court that in his almost three decades as a judge, heÂ?s only heard of breathalyser test results as high as JohnstoneÂ?s on one other occasion.
Â?And that came from an autopsy,Â? said Fitzgerald.
Court heard Johnstone had blood alcohol readings of between .34 and .36, or more than four times the legal limit of 0.8 milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood at the time the accident took place in the middle of the afternoon.
Fitzgerald told Johnstone that if he wanted to kill himself by abusing alcohol, he had every right. However, members of the public, especially young children trying to get home in a school bus, must be protected from someone who would even consider driving while so severely intoxicated.
Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Slater told the court the vehicle driven by Johnstone only nudged the bus and none of the children on board were injured.
Even though Johnstone did stop at the scene of the accident for a few moments, he changed his mind and took off and went to his home not far away in Naughton, said Slater.
Several children on the school bus were attentive enough to write down the license plate number and gave it to police when they arrived on the scene.
When police traced the plate, they drove immediately to JohnstoneÂ?s home and noticed a late model car with a dent on the front hood.
When Johnstone exited his home, he admitted he was the driver of the vehicle and he displayed numerous signs of severe intoxication, said Slater.
Defence counsel Alex Toffoli said each case must be judged on its own merits and in this case there are very few mitigating factors in his clientÂ?s favour.
The only real good news is none of the children on the school bus was injured, said Toffoli.
The court, however, must consider Johnstone has had a serious drinking problem for the past 15 years or so and he was co-operative with police and admitted he was responsible when they arrived to arrest him.
Johnstone recently retired after a long career in the mining industry and does suffer from numerous physical problems, he said.
This case had a pre-trial in front of another judge and it was agreed a heavy fine in the range of $2,000 and a long driverÂ?s license suspension would be an appropriate penalty, said Toffoli.
Fitzgerald said he would reluctantly agree to the joint submission, but told Johnstone that if he wants to continue to ruin his life by heavy drinking, he had better stay home and not dare get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle next time.
