Impaired Driving After a Collision in Halton: Milton and Burlington Courts

Most impaired driving cases begin with a RIDE check or a routine traffic stop. Some begin with a collision. When there has been a crash, and particularly when someone was hurt, an impaired driving case changes shape. The charges can be more serious, the police investigation is different, the evidence is often blood rather than breath, and the case may end up in a different court.

This article explains those differences for people charged by Halton Regional Police in Milton, Oakville, Burlington, and Halton Hills, or on the highways that cross the region: the 401, the 407, the 403, and the QEW.

Where Halton Cases Are Heard

Criminal charges from Halton are heard at the courthouse at 491 Steeles Avenue East in Milton, which houses both the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice. The Ontario Court of Justice also sits at a satellite location at 2021 Plains Road East in Burlington, which has no Crown office on site. Your release document or summons will tell you which building your first appearance is in, and our Milton location page has an overview of the court.

If a collision case proceeds as a serious indictable matter, as described below, it may eventually move to the Superior Court in Milton.

How a Collision Changes the Charges

A collision where no one is hurt usually does not change the charge itself. The offences remain impaired operation or over 80 under section 320.14(1) of the Criminal Code, or refusal under section 320.15(1), with the same mandatory minimums as any other case: on a first offence, a fine of at least $1,000, rising to $1,500 or $2,000 at higher readings or for refusal. The collision is still relevant, however, because it tends to make a sentence heavier and can give the Crown additional evidence of impairment.

Where someone other than the driver was injured or killed, the Criminal Code creates separate offences:

• Impaired operation causing bodily harm under section 320.14(2), and the parallel refusal offence under section 320.15(2). Under section 320.2, these are punishable on indictment by up to 14 years in prison, and they carry the same mandatory minimums as the basic offence.
• Impaired operation causing death under section 320.14(3), and the parallel refusal offence under section 320.15(3). Under section 320.21, these are punishable by up to life in prison.

The driving prohibition works differently for these offences, too. For the basic offences, section 320.24(1) makes a prohibition mandatory. For the bodily harm and death offences, section 320.24(4) makes it discretionary but longer: for bodily harm, up to 10 years plus any time in custody; for death, any length the court considers appropriate plus any time in custody.

Collision cases also attract related charges. Dangerous driving under section 320.13 is often laid alongside impaired driving, and where a driver left the scene, failing to stop after an accident under section 320.16 can be added. Each has its own elements and each needs to be analyzed separately.

How the Evidence Is Different

Blood instead of breath

After a serious collision, the driver is often taken to hospital rather than to a police station. Breath testing may be impractical, and the Criminal Code provides alternatives.

Under section 320.28(1)(a)(ii), where an officer has reasonable grounds to believe that a person’s physical condition may make them incapable of providing a breath sample, or that taking one would be impracticable, the officer can demand blood samples instead. Those samples are taken by a qualified medical practitioner or qualified technician.

Where a driver cannot consent at all, section 320.29 allows a justice to issue a warrant for blood samples. The justice must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe the person operated a conveyance within the preceding eight hours that was involved in an accident resulting in bodily harm or death, that there are reasonable grounds to suspect alcohol or a drug in their body, and that a medical practitioner believes the person cannot consent and that taking the samples will not endanger their health.

Each of those steps can be examined: whether the grounds existed, whether a demand or warrant was properly obtained, who took the sample, and whether it was handled and analyzed properly. Section 320.31(2) makes a blood analysis proof of the concentration when the sample was taken, unless there is evidence that the analysis was performed improperly. Section 320.31(3) then narrows what counts as that kind of evidence: evidence of how much you drank, of how quickly your body would have absorbed or eliminated the alcohol, or a calculation based on those things, does not qualify.

Hospital records

Police sometimes seek access to blood work or medical records created by the hospital for treatment rather than for the investigation. How police obtain that material, and whether they had lawful authority to do so, raises questions under section 8 of the Charter, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. These are among the more technical issues in collision cases and need to be reviewed carefully.

Collision reconstruction and causation

In a bodily harm or death case, the Crown must prove more than impairment. It must also prove that the injury or death was caused while you were operating the conveyance. That brings in collision reconstruction evidence, vehicle data, road and weather conditions, and the conduct of other drivers. The defence may need its own analysis of those issues.

What you said at the scene

Ontario drivers have reporting duties after a collision. Statements compelled by a provincial reporting duty are generally protected from use against you at a criminal trial, but the line between a compelled report and a voluntary conversation with an investigating officer is often disputed. Anything said at the scene, in the ambulance, or at the hospital should be reviewed with your lawyer before any conclusions are drawn about the strength of the Crown’s case.

How the Court Process Differs

A basic impaired driving charge is usually prosecuted summarily and tried in the Ontario Court of Justice. The bodily harm and death offences are different.

The death offences can only be prosecuted by indictment, and the Crown may choose to proceed by indictment on the bodily harm offences, which carry up to 14 years. Proceeding by indictment generally gives the accused an election: trial by a provincial court judge, by a Superior Court judge alone, or by a judge and jury. It can also make a preliminary inquiry available, which lets the defence test the Crown’s evidence before trial. Our articles on elections in criminal cases and preliminary inquiries explain those choices.

Bail can also become a real issue in a serious collision case, whereas most basic impaired driving charges end with release from the police station. If you or someone close to you is being held, our bail practice page explains how bail hearings work.

The Licence Consequences Are Heavier

The Ministry of Transportation’s immediate 90-day suspension, seven-day vehicle impoundment, and $550 penalty apply at the outset as in any impaired driving case where the driver registers 0.08 or more or refuses a demand. After a conviction, the consequences depend on the offence.

Two points are specific to collision cases. First, Ontario’s reduced suspension program, which lets eligible first offenders shorten their post-conviction suspension through an early guilty plea and an interlock device, is not available to anyone convicted of an offence involving bodily harm or death. Our guide to early interlock eligibility sets out who can and cannot use it. Second, a conviction for impaired driving causing death carries an indefinite provincial licence suspension that may be reviewed only after 25 years. Those provincial consequences run separately from, and in addition to, anything the court orders.

What to Do in the First Days

If you have been charged after a collision, a few steps taken early can protect your position:

• Write down your own timeline while it is fresh: where you had been, what and when you drank, when you started driving, and everything you remember about the collision and what followed.
• Identify witnesses. Passengers, other drivers, and bystanders may remember things that never made it into police notes.
• Preserve what you have. Dashcam footage, photographs of the vehicles and the scene, phone records, and receipts can all matter. Do not delete anything.
• Keep your medical paperwork, including discharge summaries, if you were treated at hospital.
• Be careful what you say. Do not discuss the collision on social media or with anyone other than your lawyer. If your insurer asks for a statement, get legal advice first about how to meet your obligations under the policy without saying more than you need to.

How Mor Fisher Can Help

Collision cases need early work. Scene evidence, vehicle data, video from nearby businesses or other drivers, and medical records can become harder to obtain as time passes. On these files we move quickly to identify and preserve what exists, review how any breath or blood samples were demanded and taken, examine how police obtained medical information, and assess causation independently rather than accepting the reconstruction in the police synopsis. More on our approach is on our impaired driving page.

Charged with impaired driving after a collision in Milton, Oakville, Burlington, or Halton Hills? Contact Mor Fisher LLP at 705-721-6642 or through our contact page. In a collision case the evidence that can help you is often the evidence most at risk of disappearing, so the first weeks matter.