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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Driver spared jail time for killing pedestrian
SHE is an otherwise model citizen without so much as a speeding ticket on her record. But Nance Demelnyk will forever have to live with a momentary lapse in attention that cost a woman her life.
Demelnyk, 43, was given a 30-month suspended sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death. She was banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service work.
Jaswinder Sandhu, 46, died of massive head trauma after being struck by Demelnyk's car while walking across McPhillips Street at Templeton Avenue in July 2010.
Demelnyk was making a left turn onto McPhillips at a green light but went around another vehicle that had stopped for Sandhu, court was told. She never saw the pedestrian until it was too late. Sandhu was pronounced dead on arrival at nearby Seven Oaks Hospital.
"There hasn't been a day since the accident that I haven't thought of you and the pain I caused. I think of you every day and pray you'll find peace. I'm truly sorry," a tearful Demelnyk told the victim's four children and other family members in court.
Sandhu was sent flying more than 10 metres before landing on the pavement, witnesses said.
A distraught Demelnyk rushed out of her vehicle and cradled the victim while waiting for paramedics to arrive on scene.
"She worked very hard being a loving, caring, supportive mother," one of Sandhu's children said in a victim impact statement read aloud by the Crown.
"It was not God's doing. She was taken away from us by another human being."
Demelnyk had no criminal or traffic record but suffered from "brief inattention... a matter of seconds," said Crown attorney Vic Bellay.
Witnesses said she looked away from the road to peer into the vehicle of the car she was driving around.
"This is a very clear example of how very quickly two families can have their lives changed so dramatically and tragically," provincial court Judge Rob Finlayson said.
He told Demelnyk "you don't belong here -- and it's a true tragedy you are here as well."
The Crown didn't seek a jail sentence and left it open to the court to determine an appropriate punishment.
www.mikeoncrime.com
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 24, 2012 B2
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Evidence ignored in dangerous driving acquital, appeal court told
1:15 PMA trial judge was accused of ignoring vital evidence during a Manitoba Court of Appeal hearing this morning.
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