A Port Alberni woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for impaired driving and causing a collision that killed a retired RCMP officer on Highway 4.
Belinda Mary Hainsworth was sentenced after pleading guilty to impaired driving causing the death of Gareth Rees and impaired driving causing bodily harm to Rees’s wife and Hainsworth’s own passenger.
Hainsworth was driving eastbound on Highway 4 near Whiskey Creek on March 22, 2019, when she veered inexplicably into oncoming lanes, crashing into a pickup driven by Rees. The pickup flipped and came to a stop upside down.
Rees died at the scene.
Hainsworth appeared dazed and confused at the scene of the crash and was found to have methamphetamine in her system at the hospital afterward.
Justice Robin Baird said Hainsworth’s genuine remorse was clear throughout proceedings, but the “completely avoidable” death of Rees was an unspeakable loss.
“It could have been any one of us. It’s the kind of thing that strikes fear into the heart of anyone who hears about it,” Baird said. “I’ll never drive that highway again without thinking of Gareth Rees at that location. It’ll always occur to me to wonder if maybe Belinda Hainsworth isn’t careening towards me in the opposite direction heedless of the fact that I’m just going on about my business or that anyone else is just going on about their daily business.”
Rees’s wife, son and daughter delivered emotional victim impact statements at the sentencing, urging Hainsworth to show she’s sorry by improving herself.
“Get help. Get sober. Become a productive member of society. That’s owed to my family, that is owed to my father. It won’t be easy, but things in life are never easy, at least the things that mean something,” said Barry Rees, who told the court his father instilled in him the importance of doing what’s right when no one is looking.
Jennifer Rees said her father did his job as a police officer “until his last breath,” taking someone dangerous off the road.
“I truly hope that that person can become a better person from this and that my father’s death isn’t in vain,” she said.
Hainsworth was injured in a collision with an impaired driver years ago and is entitled to her “fair share of sympathy and understanding,” said Baird, who noted she has offences related to narcotics that predate her injuries.
With 398 days’ credit for time served in pre-trial custody, Hainsworth will serve just under four years.
She is also prohibited from driving for 10 years after her release.
