CHILD NOT IMPAIRED, MOTHER TELLS COPS

Fallout From Fatal Car Accident

The mother of a Whitchurch-Stouffville teenager killed in an August
car accident is demanding police retract their claim her daughter was
impaired.

"There is no scientific data saying she was impaired," said Karen
Mont-gomery, whose 17-year-old daughter, Janette, was killed when she
lost control of her car and hit a traffic pole in East Gwillimbury the
morning of Aug. 29.

"I've asked for a retraction and I want an apology. I want her name
cleared."

Janette was giving a friend a ride home shortly after 9 a.m. when she
changed lanes to pass another car.

It was raining heavily and she lost control, crossed in front the car
she was passing, hitting its front bumper. Her Cadillac Eldorado, a
gift from her grandfather just weeks earlier, left the road and hit a
pole.

The Cardinal Carter Catholic High School student was taken to
hospital, where she died.

Her 19-year-old passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries and
the driver of the other car was not hurt.

Three months later, York Regional Police issued a news release stating
a toxicology report from the Centre of Forensic Science indicated
Janette had drugs and alcohol in her system and was impaired.

However, toxicology reports do not indicate impairment, only a level
of drugs or alcohol present in a test sample of a subject's blood,
urine or saliva.

A copy of Janette's toxicology report obtained by the York Region
Newspaper Group indicates she had a level of THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana, which police say is consistent with having
some exposure to the drug within approximately two hours of the crash.

Unlike alcohol, there is no THC blood level that constitutes a charge
under the Criminal Code. There is also no data to support what level
of THC would indicate impairment.

The report also indicted an unknown level of a benzoylecgonine, a
metabolite of cocaine found in the body after ingestion of the drug.
It suggests Janette used cocaine, but does not pinpoint when or how
much.

Her toxicology screening also showed trace, or amounts below a level
that can be quantified, of ethanol in her blood.

The ethanol could have come from drinking alcohol or something as
benign as mouthwash.

Nowhere does the toxicology report say Janette was impaired.

York Regional Police Staff-Sgt. Thomas Carrique admits the news
release should never have indicated it did.

"It should have said, based on the toxicology report, all the other
evidence and the analysis of a drug recognition expert, who also
happens to be a qualified breath alcohol technician and a collision
investigator, she was impaired, in our opinion," he said.

Two York Region officers were recently certified as drug recognition
experts. However, the drug recognition expert (DRE) program, first
instituted by Los Angeles Police in the late 1970s, is designed to
determine impairment using a series of psychological and physical
tests on live subjects, not by looking at the toxicology reports of
the deceased.

"That's where the confusion may be," Staff-Sgt. Carrique said. "He did
not perform a DRE examination, but he used his expertise as a drug
recognition expert, an extremely qualified breath alcohol technician
and a very experienced collision investigator to form the opinion she
was impaired at the time of the crash."

That's not good enough for Janette's mother, who says her family and
friends were upset to read newspaper stories claiming she was impaired
without the scientific proof to back it up.

"The toxicology report didn't say she was impaired. There is no way
they can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was. They've tried,
convicted and sentenced her without all the facts," she said.

"This has been devastating to my family. The police have made her look
like a criminal; like a bad person. She was just a normal teenager and
her rights have been trampled on."

Police issue news releases to educate young drivers about the danger
of impaired driving, not to drag the names of the deceased through the
mud, Staff-Sgt. Carrique said.

"We're trying to make our roads safer and maybe save a life in the
process of doing so," he said.

The police have no plans to issue a correction or retraction of the
release, Staff-Sgt. Carrique said.

Ms Montgomery said she may consider a civil suit.

"The police should stop and think how their policies affect people. No
other mom, dad and grandparents need to go through this," she said.

"We've been put through the mill. There's no evidence she even smoked
marijuana, she may have just been in the room where someone was smoking.