Just over six months after 53-year-old Darlene Smith was critically injured after being run over by a vehicle while sleeping in a tent, a Campbell River woman has been charged with multiple offences related to the shocking incident.
It was just after midnight on November 10, 2024, when a vehicle came racing through a quiet downtown alley in Campbell River. It is a place where some of the area’s unhoused set up tents when they can’t find space in a shelter, and that is just what Smith was doing.
In a 2024 Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper article, Darlene reported that she hadn’t been feeling well. Rather than drink alcohol, she retired early to her tent, set up in the alley behind a hotel in downtown Campbell River. Sometime after midnight a woman driving a vehicle drove into the alley and was reportedly heard arguing with those already in the alley. A witness told Ha-Shilth-Sa that the driver got back into her vehicle – “…(I) heard the car rev again as the driver slammed the car in reverse, running over Darlene Smith, who was sleeping in her tent. The car hit a pole and bounced back onto the tent, running Smith over a second time,” said witness Dan Samvidge.
Friends and acquaintances of Smith quickly came to confront the driver and assist a seriously injured Smith.
Campbell River RCMP stated that Smith was transported to hospital with very serious injuries. In an email to Ha-Shilth-Sa, Const. Maury Tyre stated that the driver of the vehicle, a 38-year-old Campbell River woman, was arrested at the scene for dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
The BC Prosecution Service told Ha-Shilth-Sa that it was on April 10, 2025, that Amberlee Joan Herman was charged with two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, and uttering threats.
“A warrant in the first instance was executed by the police and Ms. Herman was released on an undertaking dated May 20, 2025,” said the BC Prosecution Services Communication Counsel.
According to online court service records, Amberlee Joan Herman, 38, of Campbell River, appeared in court May 26, facing several charges.
Smith, a Christie Residential School survivor, has six children. Her sister Samantha told Ha-Shilth-Sa that Darlene has struggled since the loss of her son, and that she’s had a really rough life right from residential school.
Due to the severity of her injuries, Smith was immediately flown to a Vancouver hospital after being stabilized in the Campbell River health facility. She suffered a head injury and fractures of her spine and ribs.
According to Samantha, her sister’s spinal injuries were treated with rods and pins, and Darlene went through several months of physiotherapy. She was able to take short walks in December.
A family member reports that as of May 30, Darlene has been out of hospital for about two weeks, meaning she spent more than six months in hospital care. She is back in the same alley where the incident happened, being cared for by her son.
Amberlee Herman will make her next appearance in Campbell River Law Courts on June 16.