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Outstanding Calgary businessman John Torode was given an 18-month suspended sentence with 9 months of home arrest Wednesday for a drunken-driving crash that critically injured two girls.
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Torode pleaded responsible to a cost of impaired driving inflicting bodily damage in reference to a June 12, 2020, head-on collision by which he was driving the mistaken means on Freeway 2 north of Okotoks.
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In keeping with a press release of agreed info learn by Crown prosecutor Kaitlyn Perrin and signed by Torode and his lawyer, Ian Savage, a blood pattern taken from the offender after the crash confirmed he had an unlawful quantity of alcohol in his system.
Perrin informed provincial court docket Decide Sandra Mah that RCMP obtained a name from a witness who reported {that a} sedan was touring northbound within the southbound lanes of the freeway.
Whereas investigating the criticism, Mounties got here throughout a collision between Torode’s Jaguar and a pickup truck pushed by Lena Vainshtein.
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“The collision was induced as a result of the defendant was driving the mistaken means on the freeway,” Perrin mentioned.
Each Vainshtein and Torode’s passenger, Chantal Savard, suffered critical accidents within the crash.
“Everybody concerned on this accident could be very fortunate to be alive,” Perrin mentioned.
‘I could by no means get solutions about that night time’
Protection barrister Ian Savage mentioned Torode, 73, may haven’t any reminiscence of the accident and had no connection to Okotoks or any clarification for why he was in that space.
“He does not keep in mind how he got here to be within the car with Ms. Savard,” Savage mentioned.
“It’s a thriller to him.”
Earlier than accepting the joint submission, Mah heard sufferer affect statements from each girls, together with Savard, who learn hers in court docket.
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Savard mentioned that greater than 2½ years after the accident, she remains to be struggling the bodily results of her accidents.
“I needed to grieve and settle for my new physique,” she mentioned, who indicated earlier than the crash that she would run 10 kilometers twice per week and was in one of the best form of her life.
“Moreover the continual ache, I needed to settle for that I’d not be capable of do the issues I as soon as liked to do. That night time robbed me of my self-awareness.”
Savard mentioned she had no concept why she was even in Torode’s automotive.
“I could by no means get solutions about that night time. Like the place did he take me?”
The accident occurred simply hours after Torode fondled a younger girl’s breast at a Mission restaurant. He pleaded responsible to sexual assault in January and was given a 12-month conditional discharge, which means as soon as he completes that interval he could have no report for the offence.
KMartin@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @KMartinCourts
