A Calgary man has been suspended from driving for one year and subject to six months of house arrest for driving a truck off a Revelstoke bridge last year with three passengers inside. 

Mitchell Scott Doiron, 29, came from Calgary to attend a Revelstoke provincial court hearing on Wednesday, April 2, where he faced three charges of causing bodily harm via dangerous operation of a vehicle and two charges of causing bodily harm via dangerous operation of a vehicle while impaired.

On the evening of July 12, 2024, Doiron was driving a red pickup truck along Airport Way with a friend and two women aboard. He accelerated while approaching a sharp turn onto the Fourth Street bridge over the Illecillewaet River, however, he missed the turn which sent the truck off an embankment and into the water.

Windows shattered and all passengers sustained minor cuts from their seat belts and major bruises from the impact with the river. The women escaped the vehicle first and were found by local RCMP and then admitted to hospital. While Doiron and his companion safely exited the water farther along the river. The truck continued sailing downriver and eventually sank.

"This would've been an extremely terrifying experience for all these young people," Crown Counsel Alison Buchanan told the justice Tuesday.

The court heard that leading up to the crash, Doiron had done a burnout, and at least one of the women in the truck had asked him to slow down.

Crown Counsel pursued a one-year driving prohibition and six months house arrest for Doiron under the B.C. court system. Buchanan noted that if Doiron was to enter a plea in his home province Alberta, he'd get a five-year prohibition, which would be "overly harsh" for a young man.

Defence lawyer Michael Oykhman from Calgary shared that Doiron has worked eight years as a CPKC foreman, running between Vancouver and Swift Current, Sask., and has potential for a 20-year career on the tracks.

"This incident is so out of character for him," Oykhman told the justice, adding he had no previous criminal record and maintaining that a jail sentence for Doiron would destroy his future career prospects with CPKC.

By April 2, Doiron had already served a 90-day driving suspension, according to Oykhman.

"I take full responsibility for my actions and the consequences that resulted from them," Doiron told the justice, after entering a guilty plea on all counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle.

Doiron pleaded not guilty on all counts of causing bodily harm but apologized to all those affected by the crash.

"He has taken responsibility, which is a sign of remorse," Buchanan said.

The justice ultimately settled on a 12-month, Canada-wide conditional driving sentence for Doiron as proposed by Crown Counsel. He also sentenced Doiron to six months of house arrest as proposed by Crown Counsel, however, permits Doiron to leave his premises only for work, education, vocational training, religious services and other essential needs.

Though Doiron won't serve jail time for the offences, conditional sentencing "is a sentencing of imprisonment," the justice noted.

Revelstoke's courthouse next sits on Thursday, May 1.