A 46-year-old Orangeville father of three with prior drunk driving convictions has received a nine-and-a-half-year sentence after pleading guilty to impaired driving causing the death of a 19-year-old Mississauga man and impaired driving causing bodily harm of the offender’s girlfriend in 2020.
According to an agreed statement of facts presented in court, Peter Simms got behind the wheel of his black Audi S5 on the night of Oct. 9 while impaired. At around midnight on Oct. 10, three Peel Regional Police officers driving northbound on Hurontario Street near Mineola Road drive past them.
Simms’ vehicle subsequently fishtailed and rear-ended a blue Kia Soul, before entering the southbound lanes of Hurontario and colliding with the driver’s side door of a White Honda Civic being driven by Lorne Park Secondary School student Jagrajan (Jag) Brar. He got out of the Audi and walked westbound, leaving his seriously injured girlfriend, Angel Christine Macintyre, behind. Brar died at the scene.
Readings from the vehicle showed Simms was travelling at 149 km/h two-and-a-half seconds before the crash and crashed into Brar’s car at 132 km/h.
One of the officers who witnessed the crash and who had pulled over followed Simms and after noticing a strong odour of alcohol on his breath, they arrested him for impaired driving.
The legal threshold for impaired driving is having 80 or more milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. It was estimated Simms had a blood alcohol level of 190 or more milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Simms was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison plus four years for bodily harm in connection to the injuries Macintyre received — and both sentences will be served concurrently. However, he received 414 days for time served to date. The remaining time in his sentence is eight years, four months and 11 days. Simms also received a 30-year driving ban.
When it came to Simms’ sentence, the court factored in his decision to plead guilty before a trial and exhibiting remorse. At the end of the hearing, Simms — who is an alcoholic with three previous impaired driving convictions — apologized for his “selfish” decision to drive.