An impaired driver who killed a motorcyclist on the Trans-Canada Highway last year is back in treatment at the Vision-Quest Recovery Society in Surrey.
Tracy Dawn Smith was charged with two breaches of probation after she was rude and swore at facility staff. Earlier this week, she was sentenced to time served for the breaches, defence lawyer Mark Berry said Friday.
“The Crown pointed out she was not behind the wheel of a car. She was not drinking. It was just a case of her not getting along with staff, slamming doors and swearing,” Berry said.
Smith pleaded guilty last year to impaired driving causing the death of Jana Mahenthiran. The 47-year-old information technologist died on Canada Day 2011 after Smith’s car crossed the centre line and hit him.
At Smith’s sentencing hearing on Dec. 6, Judge Robert Higinbotham imposed the shortest jail sentence with the longest possible probation period of three years. He also ordered Smith to continue treatment with the Vision-Quest Recovery Society in Surrey, where she had essentially been under house arrest since the crash. In his decision, Higinbotham said he believed society would be best protected if Smith continued as a ward of Vision-Quest, not a prison inmate.
Until the breaches, Smith had complied with her bail conditions.
Last week, the Crown asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to impose a longer jail sentence. Its decision is pending.
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