Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 27/05) - A Calgary man who plowed his car into snowbank - metres from a group of children - following a police chase through a Yellowknife trailer park was fined $1,500 Thursday.

Norman Hache, 24, pleaded guilty in territorial court to a single charge of dangerous driving.

The conviction was his second within the last four years; Hache was found guilty of driving with over 80 milligrams of alcohol in his blood in 2001.

Crown Attorney Janice Walsh told the court Hache was driving his black Ford Explorer down Franklin Avenue March 6 when he was clocked at over 60km/hour in a 45km/hour zone.

A municipal enforcement officer followed Hache - who was driving side-by-side with another sport utility vehicle - and turned on his lights. Hache accelerated to 80km/hour along Franklin Avenue before jutting into the Northlands trailer park, where he made several turns in an apparent attempt to avoid police. An officer found his truck moments later wedged in a snowbank, a few houses down from a group of children who were playing alongside the street. Hache was travelling between 30km/hour and 40km/hour in the trailer park.

"This type of behaviour is inherently dangerous and the outcome (could have been) tragic," Walsh said.

The municipal enforcement officer asked Hache why he was racing along Franklin Avenue and Hache said: "I'm sorry. I was just being an idiot I guess."

Judge Robert Gorin dismissed a suggestion from Walsh that Hache, who works for a Calgary-based construction company, should be sentenced to jail.

"This was not a case where he posed an extreme danger to the public," said Gorin, who explained there was no evidence that Hache was speeding in the trailer park.

In addition to the $1,500 fine, Gorin barred Hache from driving except for work purposes and ordered him to take defensive driving lessons. The Crown dropped a charge of fleeing from police.