TORONTO — A drunk man found sleeping behind the wheel of his idling parked truck has lost his bid to take his impaired driving conviction to Ontario's top court.
In a decision Wednesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected plans by Hugh O'Neill to argue he had only started the engine to keep warm and had no intention of driving.
O'Neill was found behind the wheel in the early hours of a December morning parked in a lot outside an industrial building in London, Ont. Court documents show a police officer had difficulty waking him. His blood-alcohol level was well in excess of the legal limit. He was convicted at trial. An initial appeal was dismissed.
O'Neill argued at trial that friends had driven him back to his truck after a night of drinking and he climbed in with the aim of sleeping until he was sober. He testified he had woken during the night, got out to relieve himself, and then got back in. At that point, he said, he had started the truck to keep warm and fell asleep again.
However, he insisted he planned to go get breakfast in the morning before driving to work.
![](https://media.darpanmagazine.com/library/uploads/news/content/arested1#</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
at his trial, o'neill took issue with the application of a section of the criminal code that assumes that someone in the driver's seat is deemed to have care or control of the vehicle unless they can show they had no intention of setting the vehicle in motion.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
the trial judge sided with the prosecution that the presumption applied — and that he had failed to rebut it.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
on his initial appeal, he argued his evidence could have supported the conclusion that he had no intention to drive until he had sobered up. the summary appeal judge rejected his view that his intention to drive later did not automatically rebut the legal presumption that he had care and control of the truck when he was found drunk.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
in declining to hear the case, the appeal court noted leave to challenge a decision on a question of law and is granted sparingly and that his grounds were weak.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
"(o'neill) did not satisfy the trial judge that it was his intention to leave the vehicle and to walk to some unidentified place for breakfast," the appeal court said.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
"(his) evidence on this point was ambiguous at best, and he has identified no palpable and overriding error in the trial judge's assessment of that evidence."</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
.jpg)
MORE National ARTICLES
Tourism Report Urges Transportation Links To Great Bear Rainforest
First Nations and tourism operators say better transportation links are needed for people to experience the Great Bear Rain Forest, described by the province as B.C.'s gift to the world.
Tourism Report Urges Transportation Links To Great Bear Rainforest
Pioneering HIV Researchers Among Recipients Of Canada Gairdner Awards
Each year, seven awards — which are nicknamed the "baby Nobels" because 83 Gairdner winners have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes — are handed out along with $100,000 cheques
Pioneering HIV Researchers Among Recipients Of Canada Gairdner Awards
Doctor Says Child Who's Too Stiff To Sit In Car Seat Needs To Be In Hospital
Dr. Jonathan James Gamble was responding to questions from the Crown about symptoms that 18-month-old Ezekiel Stephan suffered before he died in March 2012.
Doctor Says Child Who's Too Stiff To Sit In Car Seat Needs To Be In Hospital
Manitoba Election Campaign Sees Health Care And Environmental Promises Made
NDP Leader Greg Selinger says if he is re-elected premier on April 19, he'll bump up funding for research into Lake Winnipeg by half a million dollars.
Manitoba Election Campaign Sees Health Care And Environmental Promises Made
Sikh Candidate Prabhjeet Gill Elected Lawmaker In Calgary-Greenway Riding After Byelection
Gill is a real estate appraiser by profession
Sikh Candidate Prabhjeet Gill Elected Lawmaker In Calgary-Greenway Riding After Byelection
Surrey RCMP Out To Catch Distracted Drivers
Surrey RCMP’s Traffic Services, ICBC, and the Surrey Crime Prevention Society are participating in a distracted driving enforcement and education campaign.