Man who caused fatal crash gets 4 years in prison

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

His voice choking with emotion, Matthew Mason struggled to get his words out as he stood up in a Winnipeg courtroom to face the family of the woman who was killed in a car crash that he had caused.
Mason, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing death for an August 2023 collision that took the life of 50-year-old Lisa Bland. On Monday, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
'I know you guys look at me like I'm a monster,' Mason said through tears. 'I know nothing is going to bring her back… I ruined a couple of families,' Mason said.
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Matthew Mason, 43, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday for causing the August 2023 collision that took the life of 50-year-old Lisa Bland.
Still reeling with their own grief, Bland's family responded with compassion and forgiveness.
'We don't think you are a monster,' said Bland's daughter Suzanne, seated with several family members in the court gallery.
'But I'm going to go home. She's never coming home,' Mason said.
Mason was originally charged with an additional count of impaired driving causing death. The charge was later stayed by the Crown.
The fatal collision took place on Matheson Island, about 150 kilometres north of Gimli. Court heard Mason was behind the wheel of a 2018 GMC Sierra, while Bland was in the front passenger seat. He was driving on a two-lane gravel road around 5 p.m. when he came up behind another vehicle at an intersection that was waiting to turn left.
'Rather than wait, the accused went into the left-side ditch to pass the vehicle,' Crown attorney Thomas Boult told provincial court Judge Don Slough, reading from an agreed statement of facts.
Mason didn't brake as he drove nearly 500 metres, crashing into a tree and a concrete planter before ramming into a metal fence outside a cemetery.
'The top rail of the metal fence entered the vehicle and cut off the top half of Lisa Bland's head,' Boult said, eliciting a pained cry from one of her family members in the court gallery.
A police officer who was called to the crash site said it was 'one of the most horrific scenes' he had ever responded to and that it had a 'significant impact' on his mental health, Boult said.
'To this day he can't be around people who drink alcohol because it brings back memories of what happened,' he said.
Court did not hear how Mason and Bland knew each other or how they came to be together in the vehicle.
Police at the scene said Mason smelled of alcohol, 'but did not otherwise show any signs of impairment,' Boult said.
Mason told police: 'If you give me your gun, I will kill myself,' and insisted he had consumed only two drinks and was not drunk.
Mason initially agreed to give a breath sample but became belligerent with officers and deliberately thwarted early attempts to provide a sample. A breath sample provided more than six hours later estimated his blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash to be .09, just over the legal limit for driving.
Mason had a criminal record at the time of the crash, including convictions for assault and drug offences, but had remained out of trouble with the law since 2016.
Mason had been working as a fisherman's helper and moving his life in a positive direction, said defence lawyer Manny Bhangu.
'Not a day goes by that he doesn't wake up thinking about (the crash), that he doesn't have a nightmare about it,' he said. 'He knows what he has done is absolutely horrible.'
Family members described Bland as a strong, caring woman who held her family together during times of tragedy.
'With everyone, I will slowly heal, let go and forgive,' Suzanne Bland wrote in a victim impact statement read out in court.
'If I could do anything right now, it would be sitting with you, having coffee, talking, laughing,' she said. 'Our cackles, I can still hear them.'
Mitchell Bland, Lisa's son, applauded Mason for addressing his family and taking responsibility for what he had done.
'Respect to you for saying something, it takes a lot of guts to say that,' he said.
Mitchell said his mother stepped in to care for his young son after the boy's younger brother was fatally mauled by a dog and Mitchell was in jail.
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'She held us all together,' he said. 'In the time she cared (for my son), he changed completely. (He) was mute, but started expressing himself. He talks a bit now. He cared for his grandma a lot. I don't know how he is coping with losing her.'
Slough described Mason's driving as 'incomprehensible' and said he 'completely accept(ed)' Mason was remorseful.
'I appreciate the generosity of the (Bland) family in dealing with this in the way they have — having a sense of loss, but not a sense of vengeance,' Slough said. 'I wish I could say something to make it better, but I can't.'
At the end of the hearing, several of Mason's family members approached Bland's family and shared words and hugs before filing out of court.
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Dean PritchardCourts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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