Woman, 81, pleads guilty in fatal Jordan car crash

An 81-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death in connection with a three-vehicle crash in Jordan which claimed the life of a Sherkston man.

Margaret Park-romain appeared in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Monday to answer to the charge.

She is scheduled to return to court in March for sentencing.

On Sept. 3, 2021, around 4 p.m., court was told, Mark Stewart was driving on Victoria Avenue in Jordan when his pickup truck was struck by a car that failed to stop at the intersection at Spring Creek Road.

The force of the impact pushed his truck into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer carrying a cargo of bricks.

Stewart, a 50-year-old Sherkston resident, died at the scene.

The crash was captured on the dashcam video of a car which had been travelling behind the woman at the time.

Assistant Crown attorney Ashley Galea told court the footage shows the defendant driving well below the posted speed limit on Spring Creek Road shortly before the crash. The vehicle swerves back and forth across the roadway several times.

As the vehicle approached the intersection at Victoria Avenue, she told court, the driver accelerated to “well above” the posted speed limit of 70 kilometres per hour.

The car made no attempt to slow down or stop at the stop sign. It drove through the intersection and struck the victim’s truck.

The force of the crash pushed Stewart’s vehicle into the path of the oncoming tractor-trailer. The 22-year-old truck driver sustained minor injuries.

Park-romain was ejected from her vehicle.

She was taken to a local hospital then airlifted to an out-of-town trauma hospital for treatment of serious injuries including fractures to her arms and hips and a cervical spine injury.

Court heard the woman had blood drawn at the St. Catharines hospital before she was transferred to the trauma centre.

Niagara Regional Police obtained judicial authorization to obtain a sealed vial of her blood.

The blood was taken to the Centre of Forensic Sciences where it was determined the defendant had alcohol in her system at the time of the fatal crash.

Park-romain was originally charged with impaired driving causing death, driving with an excessive blood/alcohol level and criminal negligence causing death.

In court Monday, she pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death.

The car made no attempt to slow down or stop at the stop sign. It drove through the intersection and struck the victim’s truck