By Sheldon Spackman

O’Chiese First Nation

Woman sentenced in fatal collision with 17-year-old pedestrian

Sep 22, 2020 | 5:20 PM

A guilty plea in Red Deer provincial court Tuesday from a woman charged in a fatal collision that claimed the life of a 17-year-old pedestrian on the O’Chiese First Nation last winter.

Shania Whitehorse, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of operating a conveyance while over 80 mgs% (over 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood), while a charge of impaired driving causing death was previously withdrawn.

Whitehorse was handed a $1,500 fine, one-year driving prohibition and ordered to pay a Victims of Crime surcharge of $450.

Defense lawyer Maurice Collard says the sentence was a joint submission between himself and Crown prosecutor Ann Siford, one in which Judge Gordon Yake accepted on Tuesday.

“Miss Whitehorse has taken responsibility for drinking and driving,” remarked Collard. “The death that resulted was tragic and has created great sadness for Miss Whitehorse and the family of the deceased. Ultimately, the Crown could not prove that she was responsible for the young pedestrian’s death.”

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It was shortly before 6:00 a.m. on Jan. 25, 2020 when Rocky Mountain House RCMP responded to a disturbance on the O’Chiese First Nation and determined there was a motor vehicle collision involving a young female pedestrian.

Mounties say the pedestrian was taken to hospital with critical injuries but later succumbed to those injuries on Jan. 27 – just five days after turning 17.

The 22-year-old driver was arrested on scene and called police herself, court heard on Tuesday. It was also learned that Whitehorse, a mother of two, was a former teaching assistant and had worked with the victim’s family prior to the collision.

Collard says the onus is always on the Crown to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and he notes they could not do that in this instance.

“Miss Whitehorse still grieves for the deceased but looks forward to putting this tragedy behind her,” he added. “Miss Whitehorse has taken responsibility for what the Crown can prove. She did not take responsibility for things the Crown cannot prove.”

Collard concedes it’s understandable the public may have a blood lust in tragedies such as this one, and the sentence that followed.

“But the law must apply equally to everybody,” he explains. “And the law states that people should only be convicted where it can be proven that they are guilty.”