Impaired Driving

After all the publicity concerning BC having the toughest impaired driving penalties in Canada you decide to drink and drive. You are stopped by police, blow a fail reading (BAC > 100 mg% or .10) on the screening device and are now in serious trouble for the first time in your driving career. What happens under the Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) Program?

Under the new Immediate Roadside Prohibition rules, motorists are able to take a second test on a different device, says RCMP Constable Steve Holmes.

"Holmes says the driver, who had a strong odour of liquor on his breath, proceeded to blow a fail on his second try.

In 1977 BC established the limit of 50 mg% as the provincial limit on Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) for drivers. When tested with an approved screening device drivers with a BAC over this limit received a 24 hour roadside prohibition. Relatively recently, this prohibition also included a 24 hour vehicle impoundment to go along with the prohibition.

This is the provincial court decision rendered by Judge P.D. Gulbranson finding Carol Ann Berner guilty of all charges arising out of the death of Alexa Middelaer and the serious injuries caused to her aunt, Daphne Middelaer.

Kurtis William Rock was an 18 year old who spent the day drinking beer in the park with friends. At the conclusion of the drinking session he loaded two minors in his mother's Buick Rendezvous and entered traffic in the City of Vancouver.

Question: Can someone with their N have more than one friend in the car if they are the designated driver?

Some of the best anti-impaired driving videos come out of Australia. This example runs for 5 minutes and 22 seconds and it explains very well why police target impaired drivers. As they say, if you drink and drive, you're a bloody idiot!

The US National Safety Commission reports on the use of energy drinks and the possibility of caffeine impaired driving. Energy drinks contain significant amounts of caffeine and when consumed to excess can lead to caffeine intoxication. This results in behavioural changes that increase the risk of aggressive driving and collision.

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This short video examines physical tests that police may use at the roadside in the UK to detect a drug impaired driver. They are equally applicable here in Canada as part of an examination by a Drug Recognition Expert, especially since recent amendments to the Criminal Code require that the driver participate in them.

On a sunny afternoon patrol one weekend I stopped a vehicle that had been exceeding the speed limit. As I approached, I could see two gray haired women in the front and two men of the same vintage in the rear of the car. I could also see a partially consumed cold beer in the hand of each of the men, who made no attempt to hide them from me.