CALGARY – Public pressure is mounting for changes to drunk driving laws.
In the past week, plea bargains have been reached in three different cases of impaired driving causing death.
In two cases the plea was to the lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death.
In the latest, Kelsey Tallman was given a one year jail term for running a yield sign and t-boning a motorcycle September 14th, 2013. The crash killed Kim Ellingson.
Kelsey Tallman was originally charged with of impaired driving causing death and plead guilty to the lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death.
“The system has just failed,” says widower Dean Ellingson.
“It hasn’t only failed us, it’s failed many people in the same situation people are dying and the accused are literally getting away with it, in my opinion.”
The group Families for Justice has collected nearly 90,000 signatures to change the charge impaired driving causing death to vehicular manslaughter.
“I’ve witnessed so many plea bargains where sentences are reduced to practically nothing when you consider time served,” says advocate Sheri Arsenault. “We are looking for a mandatory minimum of 5 years for this crime.”
Defence lawyer and former crown prosecutor Balfour Der, meanwhile, argues the law works the way it is.
“I’ve been practicing criminal law for 34 years, I was a prosecutor for 10 years, a defence for 24 years… there have been plea bargains from day one of my career and there will continue to be plea bargains because it’s essential for the system to work that way. Not every case can be proven which is why the prosecution agrees to make deals.”
For more information about Families for Justice visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Families-For-Justice/164459386985766?sk=timeline
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