A 26-year-old drunk driver was sentenced to nine months in jail, one day after he careened into a Mini Cooper on Saskatoon’s Traffic Bridge, injuring two men inside.
On Tuesday, Nicholas David Glum pleaded guilty in Saskatoon provincial court to one count of impaired driving causing bodily harm and received the jail term — a joint submission from the Crown and defence — followed by a three-year probation order and a three-year driving ban.
Crown prosecutor Frank Impey said the probation conditions will help Glum deal with his addictions. When asked why he was driving with a blood-alcohol level between .15 and .16 on a Monday afternoon, Impey said the man responded “I’m an alcoholic.”
Prior to the crash, which happened around 1:30 p.m., a driver noticed Glum’s white Ford Escape swerving on Eighth Street and striking the curb before turning onto Victoria Avenue.
“Once it gets onto the Traffic Bridge it bounces off the side rail and bounces back into the (oncoming) lane of traffic, causing a head-on collision,” Impey said.
Two men, ages 57 and 63, were in the Mini Cooper that was hit. Impey said the passenger broke his hand and the driver had to be extricated from the car; investigators initially believed he had fractured his collar bone, but that wasn’t the case. He did have bruising, cuts and aches, court heard.
“He was a war veteran and he was worried about PTSD and how it may be exasperating it. Further, he thought he may have been concussed because he was having trouble remembering certain things such as his licence plate number,” Impey said, adding Glum appeared remorseful about causing those injuries.
The crash closed down the bridge for approximately seven hours while crews removed the vehicles, which Impey said were a total loss.
Glum’s sentencing was part of a new, expedited court process that sentences offenders during their first court appearance, reducing what Impey calls “needless remand.” The Crown looks at the new arrest files and determines which ones fit that criteria.