Parsons Pond woman guilty of dangerous driving causing death

A judge has found a Parsons Pond woman guilty of dangerous driving causing death at the end of a second trial held six years after the woman's acquittal. 

Neila Blanchard, 58, struck and killed 17-year-old Justin Hynes as he was walking to school on Sept. 11, 2017.

In a Corner Brook courtroom on Monday, Blanchard sat next to her lawyer Jim Bennett as Justice Thomas Johnson read his decision aloud for an hour and a half. 

Johnson said he accepted evidence from witnesses who said that morning Blanchard had been driving her vehicle on Cow Head's main road, was speeding and went on and off the gravel shoulder before hitting a roadside sign for a museum and slamming into Hynes from behind, throwing the teen 36 metres before he hit the ground.

The judge said the woman had to have been driving between 65 and 78 km/h in a 50 km/h zone when she struck and killed Hynes.

Johnson said he found her manner of driving was "a marked departure from the conduct of a reasonable and prudent driver."

"A reasonable driver would have been aware of the risks of losing control and leaving the road surface, and would have driven at a lower speed and with greater attentiveness in order to keep their vehicle on the road," he said.

"She was travelling too fast, and the degree to which she left the paved road surface is not merely a matter of her passenger tires hitting the shoulder at the edge of the pavement, rather she allowed her vehicle to leave the road surface altogether evidencing the serious lack of attention and control."

Blanchard had been charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, but was initially acquitted in a 2019 trial.

At the time, Justice Valerie Marshall said the Crown had proven Blanchard's driving was dangerous, but didn't prove the criminal intent required for a conviction.

The Crown appealed, and in 2022 the provincial court of appeal ordered a new trial, which started on Mar. 8.

Blanchard will return in September for a sentencing hearing.

The Crown had asked she be held in custody, but Johnson said that was not necessary.

Blanchard was released on orders to keep the peace, to not drive or leave the province, and not to contact the Hynes family.

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