Territorial court Judge Karen Ruddyhas released her reasons behind her 2009 sentencing of an impaired driver who badly injured a man in another vehicle.

Lucy Marshall was convicted of impaired driving causing bodily harm after she drove while intoxicated and collided with the man's oncoming vehicle.

Ruddy handed down the five-month in-custody sentence in December 2009, but only released her reasons last week.

In 2009, Marshall was a resident of Destruction Bay. She had spent the last several years working around the world to support her interest in travel, and secured employment in the North in 2008.

On July 24, 2009, Marshall and a friend planned to visit Dawson City and Whitehorse over the weekend, spending a night in Dawson and then travelling to Whitehorse the next day.

"Ultimately, and inexplicably, these plans were changed with tragic consequences,” says Ruddy in her report.

After they arrived in Dawson, Marshall and her friend shared a couple of bottles of wine at Diamond Tooth Gerties. They then went to the Pit, where Marshall drank another glass of wine.

According to the report, Marshall and her friend began driving to Whitehorse while still intoxicated, but Marshall has no recollection of leaving the Pit or or driving.

Meanwhile, two vehicles were travelling along the North Klondike Highway toward Dawson while Marshall drove on the wrong side of the road in the other direction.

When the first vehicle encountered Marshall, its driver was able to pull over and avoid a collision, but Marshall continued to drive on the wrong side of the road in the direction of the second vehicle, which was from the U.S.

The two collided on a corner, causing the second vehicle to roll several times.

The passenger of the second vehicle, a truck, was able to flag down help for her injured husband, who had to be cut out from the vehicle when assistance arrive.

The injured man, who was 60 years old at the time, was transported to the Dawson nursing station and subsequently medevaced to Seattle.

As a result of the collision, the man suffered five fractured vertebrae in his lower neck and upper back, multiple facial lacerations and bleeding in his brain.

It is only because the man had a thicker-than-normal outer layer of his spinal cord that he was not rendered a quadriplegic, reads the judge's reasons.

Following the collision, the RCMP located Marshall, her friend and the vehicle in a ditch further down the road.

Officers demanded Marshall give a breath sample, which she failed.

She was then transported to Dawson and samples of her blood were taken more than three hours after the incident.

Ruddy says Marshall's "horrendous driving pattern” and the life-threatening, life-altering injuries suffered by the driver of the truck are aggravating factors in the case.

However, she acknowledges Marshall has entered a guilty plea, demonstrates genuine remorse for her actions, had no prior criminal record and drafted a sincere apology letter.

"Indeed, part of what makes this case so difficult is the fact that there is such a gross disparity between the very grave circumstances of the offence and the very positive circumstances of the offender,” Ruddy wrote.

She notes that Marshall, 31 at the time of sentencing, was born in Birmingham, England, where she has a large and supportive family.

She is university-educated with an "extensive and varied history” of employment and volunteer work, says Ruddy.

The judge says Marshall's circumstances are unusual to see in the criminal courts, "demonstrating once again that impaired driving offences are the one category of criminal offences which cut across all socio-economic lines, bringing otherwise law-abiding, responsible citizens routinely before the

courts....”

The occupants of the truck provided the court with a victim impact statement detailing the emotional, physical and financial impacts of the incident on their lives.

Ruddy says the injured man has daily pain and was only able to return to his job as a university professor for a couple of hours once or twice a week.

At the time of the sentencing, the man's wife had only recently been able to work because of the need to attend to her husband's needs.

The couple also lost their truck along with thousands of dollars' worth of field equipment, and their medical bills for care in Canada and the United States had exceeded $320,000 by December 2009.

Ruddy determined 150 days, or five months, with credit for eight days served was appropriate. That left 142 days in custody.

Marshall is also prohibited from driving for two years, although the judge says the prohibition will likely have minimal impact on her life because of her intention to return to England.