By Keith Lacey
A Cambridge truck driver told a grieving family he was sorry for his involvement in an accident that claimed the life of an area senior last summer.
Paul Schiedel, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of careless driving and was fined $1,000, the maximum fine allowed under the Highway Traffic Act.
He was originally charged with dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. His transport truck moved up too quickly on a small car and clipped it when he tried to move into the left lane just before noon last Aug. 21 about five kilometres west of Highway 144 in Chelmsford.
The force of the impact resulted in the car going out of control against a guard rail and then becoming airborn. Annette Chevrier, 77, was killed. The 84-year-old driver suffered serious head and spinal cord injuries.
After a thorough police investigation, it was revealed Schiedel was not driving improperly in the minutes before the accident.
The Crown?s office said the appropriate charge had been laid, said assistant Crown attorney Andrew Slater.
Defence counsel Berk Keaney told the court his client had been driving professionally for seven years and had accumulated more than 250,000 miles without incident on his driving record.
This was an accident, which unfortunately, ended tragically, said Keaney.
?It?s obvious in the circumstances here that this incident involved a momentary lapse of recognition of his speed or lack of speed of the vehicle ahead of him,? said Keaney.
While Chevrier?s family presented the court with touching and moving victim impact statements, ?the court?s duty is to mete out a proper penalty? and the appropriate penalty in this case is the fine, said Keaney.
His client not only has to live with the consequences of what happened, but he also lost his job as a direct result, co-operated fully with police and remains deeply affected and suffers great remorse over what happened, he said.
Before sentence was imposed, Schiedel told the court ?I didn?t wany anybody to die, that?s for sure. I?m very sorry somebody did die.?
After the accident, Schiedel told police he was driving westbound on Highway 144 when he noticed he was quickly approaching a small white car in the same lane, said Slater.
He was travelling the speed limit and quickly tried to avoid a collision by moving into the passing lane, Schiedel told police.
He clipped the back fender and knew the car had gone out of control.
He stopped his rig, ran back to the scene and saw the elderly male in the driver?s seat caught in his seatbelt and he and a passerby cut the seatbelt off.
Schiedel had a passenger in his rig, but he was sleeping at the time. There wasn?t any other traffic nearby he could see travelling in the same direction, Schiedel told police.
When police asked him how long he?d been driving, Schiedel told them he was five hours into a trip and ?I will admit I was a little tired.?
He had planned to stop in Nairn Centre to get a bite to eat.
Schiedel also told police he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and took medication for both, but he wasn?t impaired in any way.
Victim impact statements were read from Chevrier?s family into the record detailing how her tragic death caused so much grief and pain.
The deceased?s daughter wrote her mother was a ?caring, giving person who was the centre of their family.?
She always pushed her to reach for the stars and dream, she wrote in her statement.
She lights a candle in church every Sunday for her mother and misses her laughter every day, she said.
Chevrier?s son wrote that when he found out his mother had died, ?I felt like part of my heart was ripped out.?
