The woman who disregarded traffic control on the Trans Canada Highway on Vancouver Island and killed a paving crew worker has received a sentence with no prison time.
In August, Christianne Marie Boufford, 53, was found guilty of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm for a Sept. 23, 2021 incident on the highway south of Nanaimo, near Kipp and Minetown roads – B.C. Supreme Court justice Douglas Thompson rendered his decision Friday, Jan. 9 at the law courts in Nanaimo. According to evidence, she sped through the 60-kilometre-an-hour construction zone, at 79km/h, killing Raymond Ferguson and injuring two others.
Nick Barber, Crown counsel, sought four years in jail, and Jerry Steele, Boufford’s legal counsel, a two-year conditional sentence order to be served in the community. During his determination, Thompson gave Boufford a two-year conditional sentence order, with two years for the dangerous driving causing death charge and a concurrent one year for the count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He noted that Boufford didn’t have any prior offences, her friends and family shunned her and had lost her job as an accountant.
Boufford will be allowed to serve her time at her parents’ residence in Ontario and will be confined in the house, with exceptions for work, medical appointments, to perform 180 hours of community service work and for three hours a week to obtain the necessities of life. She is also subject to a five-year driving ban.
Friends and relatives of Ferguson were outraged with the sentence, with some wishing she meet the same fate as the victim. Boufford had previously declined to address the court and the fact she didn’t apologize angered them, including Jelene Heimbecker, Ferguson’s daughter.
Speaking to media after the decision, Heimbecker said she had hoped to see remorse and referred to the sentence as a “slap in the face.”
“She’s not sorry at all,” said Heimbecker. “She’s sorry she got caught, but she’s not sorry to anybody. She needs to apologize. She needs to take accountability and recognize the hurt, the devastation, the trauma that she’s caused countless people.”
Victim impact statements were entered into the record at the start of sentencing on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
Speaking to the court, Cheryl Hicks, Ferguson’s sister, recounted the pain she felt when learning of her only brother’s death and said she had to wait four years to face Boufford and tell her about how her actions impacted her. Ray was not killed in an accident, said Hicks, as “an accident implies it was unavoidable.”
“This was definitely avoidable,” she said. “Your actions that night prove that you, and you alone, are responsible for killing my brother … If you were the least bit sorry, you would have pled guilty in the beginning, rather than subjecting Ray’s family to the heartache of having to listen to the heartbreaking details and testimony of [his] death.”
In a statement read by Barber, Heimbecker detailed the effect for her father’s death on her psyche.
“I entered a really dark state of depression, my heartbreak, devastation, my anger directed solely at the regret and guilt [which] led me to feelings of unworthiness and loneliness,” Heimbecker said. “I have required the underlying help from a family doctor to prescribe anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication, counselling, as well as help from Nanaimo victim services, Nanaimo hospice society … I hoped to witness some form of remorse from you, but that was not the case.”
Boufford said she had no comment when queried by media as she left the courthouse.
Heimbecker said more needs to be done to protect traffic crews.
“We need to keep our road workers safe – that is a responsibility of all drivers and she failed miserably,” she said. “My dad should still be here. He should be doing all the things in life that she gets to … do. It’s unacceptable.”