B.C. woman sentenced for impaired driving crash that killed retired Mountie

A Vancouver Island woman who was high on drugs when she crashed a car into a pickup truck, killing a retired Mountie and injuring his two passengers, "did not realize what was happening and took no steps to avoid the accident" a B.C. Supreme Court judge found.

A Vancouver Island woman who was high on drugs when she crashed a car into a pickup truck, killing a retired Mountie and injuring his two passengers, "did not realize what was happening and took no steps to avoid the accident" a B.C. Supreme Court judge found.

Belinda Mary Hainsworth, 53, was sentenced last month to five years in prison for the March 22, 2019, impaired driving death of Gareth Rees and the injury of his wife and one other passenger.

Writing in his sentencing decision, which was published online this week, Justice Robin Baird found that Hainsworth veered into oncoming traffic on Highway 4 "for no reason" before slamming head-on into a pickup truck.

"The degree of Ms. Hainsworth's departure from the behaviour that every one of us has the right to expect of others operating motor vehicles on our highways was pronounced and shocking," Baird wrote.

"It merits a significant denunciatory and deterrent sentence."

Rees, who was behind the wheel of the pickup, died before emergency services arrived at the scene of the midday crash near the small community of Whiskey Creek. His wife was seriously injured while another woman in the vehicle suffered a broken leg.

Hainsworth was airlifted to hospital in Victoria. While on board the helicopter, her speech was slurred as she told the flight medics she was taking a daily dose of 150 milligrams of morphine, the judge wrote.