A 26-year-old Vancouver woman who caused a head-on car crash while driving drunk in West Vancouver with over four times the legal limit of alcohol in her blood has been handed a one-year conditional jail sentence to be served in the community and will be banned from driving for two and a half years.
Judge Bruce Dyer of the North Vancouver provincial court handed the sentence to Phedra Gail Boehm after she pleaded guilty Dec. 9 to impaired driving causing bodily harm and dangerous driving in connection with an accident on Marine Drive on Oct. 27, 2014.
Donna Sawyer was driving her teenaged son to soccer practice that night, around 7 p.m., in a school zone, when Boehm – who was driving on the wrong side of the road – slammed into their vehicle in a head-on collision. Both vehicles were heavily damaged and Sawyer suffered torn ligaments in her leg that left her unable to walk properly for several months. Her teenaged son also suffered a fractured wrist in the crash.
Witnesses at the scene described Boehm as reeking of alcohol. In a breathalyzer sample taken about two hours after the crash, she blew a blood alcohol sample measuring .339. The legal limit for driving is .08.
In handing down his sentence, Dyer described that reading as “frighteningly high” adding the fact that Boehm had an “ability to function at all with such a high blood alcohol concentration is a very troublesome factor for me.”
In a victim impact statement, Sawyer described how she usually drives a Mini Cooper – a much smaller vehicle – but took her husband’s Audi that night because it was blocking hers in the driveway. She added that her son had asked to drive that night, but she had said no because of the rainy weather.
Boehm’s lawyer told the court his client is remorseful for her actions, and stopped drinking altogether two months after the accident. She has been suspended for drunk driving previously
Dyer said drunk driving remains “all too common” and needs to be deterred.
Boehm must obey a curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. for the first six months of her conditional sentence. She must also complete 50 hours of community work service. Dyer also placed her on probation for three years, including 50 more hours of community work service. Boehm is also banned from consuming alcohol and must pay $2,800 including a $2,000 fine and $800 in victim fine surcharges.
