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Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Constance Barnes said yesterday she is taking medical leave from her post after being charged with drunk driving more than two weeks ago.
Barnes was travelling home from Iona Beach in Richmond on May 23 when she allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel of her vehicle and collided into a home at 6119 Ross Street.
No one was injured.
Lawyers advised Barnes to keep quiet but she disclosed to Vision officials Tuesday she faces multiple charges.
"I just had to come out and be honest," she said. "It was keeping me awake and I was not feeling well."
Barnes said the incident "follows a time of deep personal struggle" and she has enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous for treatment.
Vision Vancouver spokesperson Mira Oreck said Barnes should have come forward sooner.
"Should she have disclosed it right away? Yes. Would that have been our preference? Yes," Oreck said.
NPA Park Board Commissioner Ian Robertson stopped short of calling for Barnes' resignation saying, "only she can make that decision," but expressed disappointment she didn't come forward within 48 hours of the incident.
Barnes said she had no prior criminal convictions for driving under the influence.
B.C. Court records confirm a civil judgment against Barnes and her father Emery Barnes, then an MLA, as result of a car accident that took place on Vancouver Island in 1976.
Constance Barnes was the driver of a vehicle that crashed and the passenger, Cynthia Matheson, was left an incomplete quadriplegic.
The judgment was for $445,000.
Emery Barnes, who died in 1998, struggled to pay up until the year before his death.