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

The RCMP logo is seen on the shoulder of a superintendent during a news conference, Saturday, June 24, 2023 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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."

Blood seized by RCMP

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.

Mounties investigating the fatal crash obtained a warrant to seize blood that had been drawn from Hainsworth while she was in hospital. Analysis found she had morphine and methamphetamine in her system at the time of the crash.

Police testimony delivered at trial found "no indication that Ms. Hainsworth had braked before the impact or taken any other type of evasive action" before the crash, according to the judge's decision.

"That is an important fact, as far as I am concerned, because it shows not only that Ms. Hainsworth veered off into oncoming traffic, but also that as she was doing so, it did not register with her," Baird wrote.

"The impairment of her faculties was such that she did not realise what was happening and took no steps to avoid the accident whatsoever."

The car Hainsworth was driving did not belong to her and was not insured.

'Utterly appalling'

Born in England, Hainsworth moved to Port Alberni when she was six years old, leading a life troubled by emotional and sexual abuse, according to the court.

Hainsworth was, herself, struck by an impaired driver in 2013, suffering broken bones and a collapsed lung, for which she was prescribed morphine and which she later supplemented with street drugs, according to the court.

Her prior criminal history includes a conviction for trying to smuggle into Canada two kilograms of cocaine hidden in a car's gas tank as she drove across the border from the United States. She also has four prior convictions for driving without insurance, and several 24-hour roadside driving prohibitions, the judge noted.

Hainsworth spent three years in prison following the cocaine conviction, and was living in a Port Alberni homeless shelter, collecting a disability pension, at the time of the fatal crash.

"It is one thing for Ms. Hainsworth to waste away her life in habitual drug use, but to wilfully intoxicate herself and then drive a motor vehicle on a public highway in a state of intoxication is a heightened form of criminal irresponsibility," Baird wrote.

"The extent of Ms. Hainsworth's disregard, carelessness, negligence, and selfishness is utterly appalling and impossible to exaggerate."

10-year driving ban

Hainsworth's defence lawyer sought a two-and-a-half-year sentence for the charges, but the judge ruled the proposal was inadequate given the "gravity of the offence that she has committed and the degree of her responsibility for having committed it."

Baird ultimately sided with the prosecution's recommendation and imposed a five-year sentence for the charge of impaired driving causing the death and a three-year sentence for impaired driving causing bodily harm, to be served concurrently.

Hainsworth, who was been incarcerated at the Alouette Correctional Facility for Women since February, was granted 398 days credit for time already served in custody.

The judge also prohibited Hainsworth from driving for 10 years upon her release from prison, and banned her from possessing weapons for life.