B.C. driver who blamed boozing on low blood sugar after fatal crash found guilty

A new cohort study has found that people who have had COVID-19 are at an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. (Pexels)

A diabetic man who claimed he had been drinking alcohol to combat dwindling blood sugar the night he was involved in a fatal crash near Sicamous, B.C., has been found guilty of impaired driving causing death.

Gordon Kent Rumbles was driving a pickup truck towing a trailer when he crossed the centre line of Highway 1 and collided head-on into another car on Nov. 6, 2021.

Rumbles was seriously injured while the other driver, Shaun Stacey Michael, died as a result of the crash.

In a decision issued last month, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bradford Smith ruled that Rumbles’ state of impairment was “voluntarily induced.” He rejected Rumbles’ explanation that he drank without meaning to because he was in a state of hypoglycemia, and found him guilty of one count each of impaired driving causing death, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and driving while over the legal limit for alcohol.

According to the decision, Rumbles had begun his journey at his home in Thorsby, near Edmonton, with the intention of embarking on the nearly nine-hour drive to Mabel Lake, near Kelowna.

Partway through the drive he changed his mind and turned back around, which is when witnesses first described him as “driving erratically.”

Witnesses who saw Rumbles said he “appeared confused,” while a woman who had a brief exchange with him described him as being “unfit to drive” and “displaying symptoms consistent with having had a stroke,” the decision reads.

Following the crash, an officer searched the car and found two empty cans of White Claw and a three-quarters-empty bottle of Absolut Raspberri vodka. Two more cans of White Claw, still attached to their plastic six-pack harness, and two bottles of wine were found unopened.

While Rumbles did not receive a breathalyzer at the scene, a test taken more than three hours later put his blood alcohol content at 0.18, the decision reads. Based on that number, Rumbles’ blood alcohol content at the time of the crash was deemed to be between 0.21 and 0.23, levels “well in excess of the legal limit,” the judge noted.

Rumbles recorded a blood glucose level of 9.3 around half an hour after the collision. The normal range for blood glucose levels are between four and seven, according to testifying paramedics who treated Rumbles after the crash.

The decision details how Rumbles, who was diagnosed with diabetes in 2005, has been managing his illness with long-acting insulin and medication ever since he endured a near-fatal diabetes-related medical crisis in 2018.

In his testimony, Rumbles said he had never received information on the dangers of low blood glucose, particularly hypoglycemia, from medical professionals.

Rumbles described how he had administered his regular dose of long-acting insulin in the evening prior to his long journey. The morning of, he woke around 5 a.m. and made himself a coffee, but did not eat breakfast, the decision reads.

Rumbles said he set off from his home in Thorsby around 6 a.m., without any food, snacks or drinks other than his coffee. He had packed his insulin, but not a blood glucose monitor as he had one at his property in Mabel Lake.

He claimed to have made a brief stop in Valemount to fill up his car and buy the collection of alcoholic drinks, but then began to experience flu-like symptoms once back on the road.

Rumbles said he drank one can of White Claw near Clearwater, and another just before reaching Kamloops. He was still experiencing flu-like symptoms, which were “getting progressively worse," according to the decision.

Rumbles, claiming to have no memory of anything that happened between then and arriving at the scene of the crash near Sicamous, was unable to say whether he was in a state of either moderate or severe hypoglycemia when he consumed the vodka, the decision says.

“Before the collision, Mr. Rumbles consumed at least two of the cans of White Claw, and approximately three-quarters of the bottle of vodka. The time at which Mr. Rumbles began to consume the vodka, and how long he consumed it for, is unknown,” reads the decision.

Whether Rumbles consumed the two missing cans of White Claw is also unknown, it adds.

A diabetes specialist confirmed people in a mild hypoglycemic state may experience symptoms of feeling unwell, mild sweating, slightly increased heart rate, some agitation, and hunger.

In a moderate hypoglycemic state, he said, symptoms can grow to include tremors, palpitations, and the “beginnings of some degree of cognitive dysfunction.”

While the symptoms Rumbles described were consistent with those suffering from low blood sugar, Smith determined that, even if he had been experiencing hypoglycemia, he should have known about the dangers, how they would manifest and how to prevent them.

“It stands to reason that if Mr. Rumbles had associated his symptoms with something more serious, such as a medical crisis related to diabetes, he would have done something other than simply continue to drive, and then, while still driving, consume two alcoholic drinks,” he said.

Smith said he gave “very little weight” to the idea that moderate or severe hypoglycemia impaired Rumbles’ judgment in a way he could have consumed the vodka without intending to.

Smith said it “defies credulity” that between 2005, when Rumbles was first diagnosed with diabetes, and especially after he started using insulin in 2018, his family doctor, dietician and health specialists hadn’t told him about the dangers of low blood sugar.

Determining that Rumbles knew about the possibility and risks of hypoglycemia, Smith concluded he would have known it would be especially dangerous to consume alcohol after driving for hours with many hours still to go, on an empty stomach and while feeling sick.