Man fined $128 in fatal truck crash - Car Accident Defence Lawyer

Date: 5 Mar 1986
By Denni Foley
Citizen staff writer

An "inattentive" truck driver whose tanker rig was involved in a fatal crash on Hwy. 17 last week was fined $128 in provincial court Tuesday. Pascal Perron, 28, of Lorrainville, a small community near Noranda, Que., pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving and received the minimum fine possible on the urging of his lawyer. OPP Const. Brian McDougall testified Perron was driving west near the Hwy. 44 cutoff to Almonte when his truck ran into the rear of a car driven by Allison Craig, 28, of Ottawa. The Craig vehicle had been at the end of a line of traffic behind a slow-moving tractor-trailer that was climbing a hill. Perron lost control of his tractor when it ran up the back of the Craig vehicle. McDougall said Perron, who had been an accident-free truck driver for 10 years, admitted to not slowing in time and then lockIng all 18 wheels in a "panic stop." Carol Nicholson, driver of an oncoming school bus, told McDougall she could see Perron fighting to gain some kind of control over his rig in order not to hit her bus. But after the locked car and truck passed her bus, the truck tractor flipped out into the eastbound lane, hitting an oncoming car driven by Shirley Currie, 41, of Ottawa. Currie a Citizen employee on her way to work, was killed in the collision. Craig's car spun off into the westbound ditch but the driver was not seriously injured. Perron was returning empty after dropping off a load of milk from New Liskeard in Winchester. He had been on the road about 15 hours with a four-hour sleep enroute. In asking for the minimum possible fine, defence lawyer Gary Chayko told the court Perron is the father of four children and his wife does not work. His biggest punishment would be living with the accident for the rest of his life, the lawyer said. He also faces a civil trial, and the consequences this would have on his insurance rates, the court was told. Provincial prosecutor Fred Albota said he would not oppose a minimum fine. "This is one of the unfortunate accidents that happen on the road . . . but life must go on," said Justice of the Peace Des Moloughney in imposing the fine. "You were inattentive, you will have to think of that for many days to come. "But you did the best you could to control the situation but the truck got out of control. It