San Diego DUI attorney

A DUI judge Monday accepted expert evidence that a Halifax driver suffered a mild concussion in a December 2006 DUI car crash, leaving her with symptoms that police mistook for signs of alcohol impairment.

And with that conclusion, Halifax provincial court Judge Barbara Beach acquitted Chelsea Lynn Wells on seven charges of DUI - impaired driving causing bodily harm and one charge of refusing the DUI breathalyser.

"There’s no question that Chelsea Wells was in the care and control of a motor vehicle," Judge Beach said in her oral DUI decision. "I do accept as fact that she had two alcohol-based drinks.

"Other than her own admission, the only other significant evidence that I accept, which goes to this issue, is that there was a smell of alcohol coming from her breath, which merely confirms what she states in her own evidence."

Ms. Wells, 20, was arrested in the early morning hours of Dec. 2, 2006, after she drove her Honda Civic the wrong way on a downtown street and collided head-on with an on oncoming Pontiac carrying three volunteers for Operation Red Nose, a seasonal service that provides a ride home for holiday revellers who’ve been drinking.

"I accept Ms. Wells was operating her vehicle in an area in which she was not particularly familiar. It was dark, foggy, there was heavy rain, the visibility was poor," Judge Beach said.

"Ms. Wells misjudged where she drove her car and ended up proceeding against traffic, which resulted in a collision."

At trial last year, Ms. Wells, who had four friends in her vehicle, told the court she meant to turn onto Barrington Street northbound after she left her parking spot on the Cogswell Street ramp but didn’t realize she had actually turned into the southbound lanes of Hollis Street.

Although Ms. Wells consumed alcohol, the DUI judge said the accident is "more likely explained by the weather and lack of familiarity with the area than anything else."

In the end, the DUI judge said she could not conclude that Ms. Wells’s ability to operate a car was impaired by alcohol.

"The threshold of proof has not been met and counts one through seven are dismissed," Judge Beach said.

None of the eight people in the crash were seriously injured. Ms. Wells suffered two broken wrists and cuts to her forehead, eyebrow and right knee.

The police, the judge ruled, had reasonable grounds to demand the breath sample.

But based on the evidence of Ms. Wells, neurologist Dr. David King and police officers, the judge found that Ms. Wells did not refuse the breathalyser because she was too drunk but because "her mental function appears to have been affected" by an injury to the head.

"She seemed spaced out, stunned, almost as if she was not there, which in my view is consistent with concussion and intoxication," the judge said.

"There is significant and persuasive evidence which support the defence argument that Ms. Wells was indeed experiencing the effects of a concussion. And while it is impossible to be definitive in this regard, I am satisfied that a reasonable doubt has been raised. I am left in doubt as to whether Ms. Wells could fully direct her mind to the demand made."

Dr. King testified that a mild-trauma brain injury would have made it difficult for Ms. Wells to be fully aware of the significance of refusing a police demand for a breath sample.

Dr. King, who testified for the DUI defence, examined Ms. Wells on May 8, about five months after the crash. He said she appeared to have some classic symptoms of a mild concussion in the hours after the crash, such as confusion, amnesia, irrational behaviour and difficulty processing information.

"Anyone that’s been involved in an accident, you can’t just assume because of the way they’re acting that they must be under the influence of something," Don Murray, DUI defense attorney, who represented Ms. Wells, told reporters after the DUI acquittal.

"It’s clear in Ms. Wells’s case that she hit her head, she hit various other parts of her body and she was having trouble processing information both at the accident scene and later at the police station because the effects of this concussion lingered."