Duck-lover gets 90 days for triggering fatal crash

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Duck-lover gets 90 days for triggering fatal crash
QMI Agency
First posted: Thursday, December 18, 2014 12:26 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, December 18, 2014 12:31 PM EST
MONTREAL — Emma Czornobaj was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail to be served on weekends for triggering a collision that killed a man and his teenage daughter when she parked her car on a Montreal highway to save a family of ducks.
Czornobaj, 25, was convicted in July of dangerous driving and criminal negligence causing the deaths of Andre Roy, 50, and his daughter Jesse, 16, on June 27, 2010.
The father and daughter were riding their motorcycle when they rear-ended Czornobaj's car, which was parked in the fast lane.
The young woman was trying to help a duck and ducklings on the roadway.
She was also sentenced to 240 hours of community service and is banned from driving for six years.
During a sentencing hearing in September, her lawyer argued against jail time, calling what she did "a stupid move."
The Crown disagreed.
"Two human lives were taken," prosecutor Annie-Claude Chasse said.
Emma Czornobaj. (PIERRE-PAUL POULIN/QMI AGENCY)

Duck-lover gets 90 days for triggering fatal crash | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
 
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Woman who stopped car to help ducks, causing fatal crash, loses appeal
Sidhartha Banerjee, THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Thursday, June 08, 2017 05:31 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, June 08, 2017 05:42 PM EDT
MONTREAL — Quebec’s highest court has upheld the verdict and sentence in the case of a woman who stopped to help ducks along a highway causing a crash that claimed two lives.
The Quebec Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected Emma Czornobaj’s challenge in a 35-page written decision that came nearly seven years after the events.
Shortly after Czornobaj, now 28, stopped her car in June 2010 to rescue ducklings on the side of a provincial highway just south of Montreal, a motorcycle carrying Andre Roy and his teenage daughter, Jessie, slammed into the idling vehicle. Both died as a result of the crash.
Roy’s wife, Pauline Volikakis, was on another motorcycle behind the victims, but was able to stop and avoid serious injury.
Czornobaj, who was 21 at the time, wasn’t in the car, which was stopped in the left lane.
She told her trial she wanted to bring the ducklings home.
“I just wanted to pick all these ducklings up and put them in my car,” Czornobaj testified at the time. “I know it was a mistake.”
Confronted during cross-examination by the Crown, she disagreed her actions were illogical.
“At the time, it’s what I decided to do,” Czornobaj said. “Obviously now I would not have stopped.”
A jury convicted her in June 2014 of two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death.
She was sentenced in December 2014 to 90 days in jail to be served on weekends, three years’ probation and 240 hours of community service, and given a 10-year driving ban.
Czornobaj appealed in early 2015, and her sentence was put on hold.
The appeals were heard in April by three justices. Her lawyer sought to have her conviction set aside due to what he called inadequate instructions to the jury by the trial judge.
Her lawyer, Jean-Francois Bouveret, appealed the conviction and sought to have the decade-long driving ban reduced, but he failed.
“In short, both the objective and subjective gravity of the offence allowed the imposition of the sentence imposed by the judge, including the prolonged prohibition on driving,” Justice Etienne Parent wrote in a unanimous decision.
“I recall that the period of incarceration inflicted on the appellant, 90 days to be served in a discontinued fashion, is an exceptionally lenient punishment.”
A call to Bouveret was not immediately returned on Thursday.
Emma Czornobaj, who was convicted after two people died when their motorcycle crashed into her car as she helped ducks on a highway, has lost her appeal. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz)

Woman who stopped car to help ducks, causing fatal crash, loses appeal | World |
 
#juan

#juan

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bill barilko said:
Should have been 20+ years in the slammer.
Click to expand...
A good part of the blame should go to the motorcycle driver. Must have been going pretty fast in order to kill both the driver and the passenger. a following motorcycle had no trouble stoppjng.
 
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lambertbob912

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She is at fault but the motorcyclist must have been going so fast was he not able to look ahead? It is just a horrible situation. :(
 
Danbones

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No matter what the law is, a person has to drive safely in REALITY, or the unfortunate consequences are what we see here.
Sad for everyone.
 
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