Impaired driver gets hefty fine

By Delon Shurtz on February 4, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

An impaired driver who was trapped in his overturned vehicle following a collision last year has been levied a hefty fine.
Paul Dale Baumback was fined $2,500 plus a surcharge after he pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court to one count of driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit.
Baumback, 39, was driving on the northside about 4 p.m. Oct. 3, 2020 when he had trouble negotiating a turn. Although he wasn’t speeding, he struck a parked vehicle, causing a chain reaction when the vehicle was pushed into a second vehicle, which collided with a third vehicle.
Baumback’s vehicle rolled onto its side and he was still trapped inside when police and emergency personnel arrived shortly afterward.
Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles said it took rescuers about 30 minutes to extricate Baumback from his vehicle before police could arrest him. Baumback, whose blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit, told EMS personnel he had been drinking vodka.
Lethbridge lawyer Frank Llewellyn told court Baumback, who has Asperger Syndrome, began drinking heavily after he and his wife of eight years separated two years ago. Llewellyn said his client had been drinking heavily at the time of the collision, but he is in rehab and has been sober for about six months.
“He’s certainly attempting to get his life together,” Llewellyn said.
“I’m very remorseful for what I did, and I will not make a repeat of it,” Baumback told the judge.

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