A new trial's set for a paramedic charged with careless driving over a fatal ambulance/snowplow collision near the Dubreuilville turnoff in February 2022.
Provincial offences court this week confirmed the trial will be held over two days in February 2027, retrying Shani Larrett for careless driving causing death over the collision - which saw the ambulance she was driving crash into the rear of a snowplow on Highway 17, just south of the intersection with Highway 519 - with 68-year-old Connie Halverson of White River - a passenger in the ambulance - pronounced dead at the scene, while one paramedic sustained "life-threatening injuries" and another "non-life-threatening injuries" - the plow driver was not injured.
Larrett was convicted last year but it was overturned this past June, with Ontario Court Justice Romuald Kwolek finding the justice of the peace who presided over the original trial failed to address key pieces of evidence presented "on the issue of due diligence, why she drove in the manner that she did, and her belief that the snowplow was much farther away" nor did the justice analyze whether blowing snow from the plow and the whiteout conditions impacted perception of the distance between the vehicles, with evidence the snowplow driver failed to see the ambulance moments before hearing the siren "as further evidence of brief whiteout conditions" not taken into account.
Members of Halverson's family launched a $1-million civil suit against Larrett and the Algoma District Services Administration Board - which oversees Algoma's paramedic services - in 2023, though the suit has not been tested in court.