A little over a year after being sentenced to four years in prison for one death and seven injuries while intoxicated at a Highway 20 construction site, a driver has already received his parole, much to the disappointment of one of his victims.
• Also read: Driver gets four years
• Also read: More than twice the alcohol limit
• Also read: Fatal accident on Highway 20: flags at half-staff at MTQ
“I have 20% loss of autonomy, I can no longer work on the road, I will pay for the rest of my life, and he is just over a year old and thank you, good evening », Jacques Jérôme starts in an interview, shocked that Vincent Lemay has already left prison.
That’s because 43-year-old Lemay took multiple lives in February 2018. After drinking too much after work, the driver was still on the road despite a blood alcohol level more than double the legal limit.
ARCHIVE PHOTO, Chantal Poirier
Vincent Lemay arriving at the Montreal Courthouse in September 2021, just before receiving his verdict.
He then began driving up to 80 mph, and as he approached a construction site at the Dorval roundabout on Highway 20, he didn’t slow down. Worse, he accelerated, resulting in a collision with a vehicle that was thrown at a group of Department of Transportation employees.
“One MTQ worker lost his life while seven other people were injured,” the Parole Board of Canada said.
stop the alcohol
However, the mother of the deceased Stéphane Lebel already stated when the sentence was pronounced that the sentence of 4 years was mild. Sylvie Turcotte had called for harsh penalties to discourage anyone from drunk driving.
Thanks to his regret, his good behavior, his introspection, his low risk of recidivism, the support of his loved ones, and the fact that he eventually served less than a third of his sentence before being sent to a transitional facility, Lemay is known, among other things, because he drinks no more alcohol at all.
ARCHIVE PHOTO, MARTIN ALARIE
Sylvie Turcotte poses with the portrait of her son, Stéphane Lebel, who died working on an MTQ site in February 2018.
“You no longer have the same tendency to downplay the circumstances as you did when you arrived in prison, and you have recognized the magnitude of the consequences suffered by the victims,” the PBC noted. Your parole officer determines that the deterrent effect of incarceration has been fulfilled.
“Bad decision”
At the same time, however, it was recognized that Lemay would have paid very little for his crimes.
“Your case management team recognizes that you were detained for a very short time when compared to the consequences suffered by the victims, we can read the PBC’s recent decision. However, she believes it would be possible for you to continue your journey in a less restrictive environment than prison.
For Mr Jacques, this is a bad decision that sends the wrong message to the population.
“Four years in prison would have been fine. There I find that in the episode he is quite thin, he fell. Much remains to be done in the area of drinking and driving.
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