Drunk driving is comparable to walking down the street, randomly firing a machine gun, a Crown prosecutor said during the sentencing of an impaired driver on Thursday in Red Deer provincial court.
Lacombe mother April Gail Beauclair killed two Red Deer teenagers in a highway collision last March. She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Colton Keeler, 19, died at the scene and Tyson Vanderzwaag, 17, died in hospital after being struck from behind while pushing a broken-down car along the shoulder of Hwy 11A in the early hours of March 31.
Beauclair, 29 at the time, and a mother of two girls, was arrested at the scene and pleaded guilty later to two counts of impaired driving causing death.
Court heard Beauclair was celebrating her upcoming 30th birthday with friends in Sylvan Lake and had been sleeping off the effects when she decided to get up and drive home.
She ran into the back of the broken-down car a few kilometres west of Hwy 2 at the junction of Hwy 11A and Range Road 28-2.
Crown prosecutor Maurice Collard had asked for a five-year sentence.
Colton Keeler’s father, Darren Keeler, said outside the courtroom that Judge Thomas Schollie’s sentence does not send a strong enough message about the consequences of impaired driving.
Keeler said courts in Alberta need to follow Ontario’s example and send a stronger message through harsher sentencing.
Darren Keeler’s sister, Kathy Quaiscei of Calgary, said no sentence can be harsh enough to compensate for the loss of two young men and the profound impacts that loss has had on their families and their community.