Sometimes a good deed does deserve to be punished…
A 26-year-old Canadian woman has been sentenced to 90 days in prison, community service and a suspended license for the deaths of a 50-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter when their motorcycle collided with her stopped vehicle. She stopped in the left lane of the highway to “to herd ducklings to safety.”
Emma Czornobaj was driving westbound on Highway 30 in a suburb of Montreal. While she initially told police that she had her hazards on, witness testimony in court contradicted her assertion.
According to someone with the Quebec national police, they estimated that the motorcycle was going about 65 mph when he struck Czornobaj’s Honda Civic. Andre Roy died immediately and his daughter Jessie died later at a hospital.
Four years after the crash occurred, a Canadian jury found Czornobaj guilty on two counts of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle leading to death.
Czornobaj was fortunate, since the maximum sentence could have been life in prison. However, she benefited from thousands of petition signatures asking for leniency.
The family of motorcyclist Andre Roy and Jessie Roy, who was on the back of the motorcycle, said Czornobaj gave them no sign that she was remorseful for what happened.
Pauline Volikakis, the wife and mother of the two people who were killed, was riding in her own motorcycle from behind, so she watched in horror as the crash happened. While Czornobaj gave a public apology, she reportedly did not reach out to Volikakis.
“She never once tried to contact me,” said Volikakis. “She held a straight face and looked the other way” as they crossed paths in a restroom during the trial.
