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Consequences for a lifetime

Mounties recount their ‘favourite’ drunk driving stories

Police officers often deal with the aftermath of horrible crashes, and the impact those crashes have on grieving loved ones.

Whether it is a fatal or serious injury collision the life altering consequences to the families involved is immeasurable. What is missed by the impaired driver is the lifelong burden that families will have to endure as the result of their stupid and irresponsible decision.

“We don’t call these accidents,” says Cpl. Robert McDonald, spokesperson for RCMP Traffic Services. “There’s nothing accidental when someone makes the decision to get behind the wheel when they are impaired.”

Even in Campbell River recently, alcohol is believed to be a factor in two serious accidents that killed a man and injured a couple.

Sadly, says Cpl. McDonald, too many people in this province still don’t grasp the gravity of impaired driving. That’s the conclusion of the RCMP Traffic members, who recently shared true stories of impaired drivers they have dealt with during their careers.

“We hope that by sharing these alarming stories, they will provide an extra incentive for people to find alternate ways of getting home, such as public transit, cabs or a designated driver,” he says.

“Please, take time to consider your actions. You don’t want to be on this list next year, or worse, on the list of people that have killed or seriously injured someone as the result of being impaired.

 

Truly Impaired Stories

 

  • During an impaired driving trial, the defence lawyer asked the police officer if he’d provided his client with an opportunity to use the facilities. When the police officer tried to be discreet in his answer, the judge instead instructed him to offer a full description. The police officer then described how the defendant had to use the wall to steady himself, but swayed so much that he urinated on two different urinals and the wall. When the laughter in the packed courtroom died down the defence lawyer simply said, “No more questions your honour.”

  • A traffic team was working on a roadblock when a van pulled up with a male driver who smelled of liquor. After the driver failed his breath test and the officer was about to arrest him, a woman pulled up in a taxi and said she was his wife. But the man was alone in his van and had not made any calls while police were dealing with him. The mystery was solved when the woman told the officer they had just left a party and she had warned him, “I told you that you had drunk too much, and to take the taxi with me!”

  • One Halloween night, a drunk driver sat in his car while the vehicle engine burned. Other motorists tried to help him before police showed up, but the driver was too intoxicated to realize the danger and refused to exit his car. At their own risk, they pulled the driver from the burning vehicle. When police did arrive the driver was too drunk to blow into the screening device. He went to jail while the people who assisted him were given a police commendation.