Driver gets 18 months in jail for speeding that killed man
Seems like a huge Big Brother Issue huh?

Black box crucial. Recorder showed no attempt to brake
The Montreal motorist betrayed by his car's black box has been sent to jail for dangerous driving causing death.

Eric Gauthier, 26, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months behind bars - less than a week before the third anniversary of his smashing into another vehicle at more than three times the speed limit.

'No sentence can replace the loss of this young man,' Quebec Court Judge Louise Bourdeau said of victim Yacine Zinet in handing down her decision.

Zinet's family was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

His sister, Belinda Matthey, told reporters she 'was sure (Gauthier) was just going to serve his sentence in the community' after the judge listed a dozen cases from between August 1999 and November 2002 in which drivers convicted of the same offence were spared imprisonment.

'I think this will be an example to others,' Matthey said outside the courtroom as she stood with her mother.

'They have to know there is (prison time) at the end of the line,' she added. 'A criminal act was committed - it wasn't an accident.'

But defence lawyer Marie-France La Haye hinted she may appeal the 'very, very severe' sentence.

'He'll have trouble dealing with this the rest of his life,' La Haye said. 'He was starting to make progress. Now he'll have to start from zero.'

When Gauthier rammed into Zinet's car at the intersection of Ste. Catherine and Alphonse D. Roy Sts. shortly before 1 a.m. on April 19, 2001, his Pontiac Sunfire was travelling at 157 kilometres per hour. The limit is 50 km/h.

Besides killing the first-year student at the Ecole des hautes etudes commerciales, the impact left his passenger Martin Larouche with a broken arm, fractured ribs and a bruised knee.

Gauthier was given an additional nine-month sentence for the injuries to Larouche, to be served at the same time as his longer jail term. He is also barred from driving for the next three years.

Matthey didn't agree with the judge's assessment Gauthier expressed great guilt and showed empathy toward his victim's family.

'We'll never be able to forgive him,' she said. 'A normal human being would have shown remorse sooner and apologized.' Instead, 'he tried to protect himself, saying it was an accident.'

Matthey also noted Gauthier didn't give his regrets to her family until he was on trial.

She was most thankful to police using information culled from the data recorder, better known as a black box, from Gauthier's car.

'Without it, we wouldn't have known what happened.'

The recording device, which stores data on how a car is driven in the last five seconds before a collision, showed four seconds before impact, Gauthier had the gas pedal to the floor. He didn't brake before impact."
Montreal Gazette - canada.com network
posted by tommEE pickles 4/15/2004 11:55:05 AM