Two-year prison sentence for driver in Daniella Clarke’s fatal crash

The Crown’s submission for a sentence of four to five years was rejected by Hildebrandt as being too harsh, while the defence’s submission of a two year sentence served in the community, was dismissed as being too lenient.

Walker had not been drinking, had no criminal record and was newly pregnant when the collision happened on Dec. 2, 2023.

In the events leading up to the collision, she told the jury at her trial in January that she was being pursued by Christina Vlahos, who followed her around the city to multiple locations.

At one point, both vehicles stopped and Walker got out with a tire iron and approached Vlahos’s vehicle, but her boyfriend talked her out of it. Vlahos then got out, approached Walker and punched her in the face.

After both drivers got back into their vehicles, Vlahos resumed pursuing Walker. The chase ended when Walker ran the red light at Central Avenue and 28th Street. She was driving nearly 90 km/h in the moments leading up to the collision and struck the vehicle in which Clarke was a passenger, killing her.

Hildebrandt pointed out that decisions such as driving to a more secluded place, where the punching incident occurred, factored into her sentencing decision.

At the same time, Walker’s role as the mother of a now two-year-old son, a subsequent miscarriage and her remorse were also factors.

While judges have no say in which institution offenders are placed, because that is the sole responsibility of the Correctional Service of Canada, Hildebrandt agreed to make a recommendation for Walker to serve all or a portion of her sentence at a healing lodge.

Once she is released, Walker will have a three-year period of probation and a seven-year driving ban.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Two-year prison sentence for driver in Daniella Clarke’s fatal crash

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