Ont. woman driving with 3x legal limit in her system pleads guilty in deadly crash

The Kitchener woman, pleaded guilty following a deadly Nov. 2024 crash, where she was found to 3X the legal limit of alcohol in her system.

Warning: This article contains details that may be disturbing and triggering to readers.

A Kitchener woman who was found with three times the legal limit of alcohol in her system following a deadly Nov. 2024 crash has pleaded guilty.

Carolyn Nielsen, 43, needed the help of crutches to get in and out of the Newmarket courthouse where she pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death and bodily harm in the horrifying head-on crash along Highway 7 East in Markham.

The crash killed 68-year-old Lloyd Kuo-Ling Szeto and sent his wife Mandy to hospital with serious injuries near the highway intersection with Reesor Rd. at about 7:45 p.m. Nov. 11, 2024.

Kitchener woman facing charges, including impaired driving, deadly Markham crash

Nielsen was found with more than triple the legal limit of alcohol in her system while reaching a top speed of 123 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. According to an Agreed Statement of Facts, Neilsen crossed the centre line in her SUV at a curve in the road before crashing into the Sedan that was travelling between 12 and 17 km/h. Nielsen’s vehicle crashed 100 feet from where it hit the sedan driven by Szeto, whose car was launched about 50 feet from the area of impact.

Good Samaritans came to their aid. One person, the court heard, spoke with Szeto, who was trapped inside his car. Szeto asked the person to take his cell phone to call his family, but the phone was broken. Szeto died on the scene of blunt force trauma injury. His wife was airlifted to hospital in Toronto with a broken jaw, sternum, and ribs.

Nielsen was found conscious and still in her vehicle. Her speech was slurred and police said she had an odour of alcohol on her breath as firefighters pulled her out of the wreckage. The court heard when Nielsen was arrested, she was unresponsive and appeared to be in shock from a left leg injury. After arriving at Sunnybrook in Toronto, a paramedic noticed an alcohol-like odour coming from the ambulance when opening the back door to get Nielsen into the hospital.

Police seized an empty 20 mL bottle of Underberg along with an opened and 3/4 empty 187 mL bottle of vodka and an unopened 750 mL bottle of vodka she had ordered about and hour-and-a-half earlier in Kitchener using the name ‘Mary Harris.’

Szeto was described in an online obituary as a hardworking provider who loved baseball. He was a devoted family man survived by his wife and their two sons.

Nielsen’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin in late August.