Impaired Driving

Question: A few months back you commented on prescription medications and driving and the issues therein. I think you people do a heck of a great job and drug testing I am certain is a growing problem for police officers.

I performed many duties in my policing career, investigator, collision analyst, breath testing technician and screening device operator/calibrator/instructor. I've seen first hand the damage that impaired drivers do to themselves and others on our highways. The duty I liked the least was notifying next of kin following a fatal collision.

TED Talks challenge fascinating thinkers and doers to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less. Ramona Pierson was crossing the street when a drunk driver ran a red light and struck her in the crosswalk. She spent 18 months in a coma and then was placed in a senior citizens home to recover.

The following excuses for driving while impaired were provided to police at CounterAttack road checks held around BC in the past month:

My husband received a ticket in September for cutting corners on the lake road, crossing the double solid. He lost his licence for 3 days and his truck was impounded for 30 days.

A new Road Safety Monitor (RSM) poll by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) shows that a majority of young Canadian drivers are aware that they cannot drive safely after drinking alcohol. The public opinion poll conducted in September 2010 investigated a variety of drinking and driving behaviours and attitudes among youth including riding with a drinking driver.

I have a question regarding the length of time it takes for alcohol to leave the system to a point where you are legal to drive.

In this case, Kristen Debra-Lee Spencer challenges an Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) in a Supreme Court Review of an adjudicators decision upholding the IRP on review. Ms. Spencer was issued the IRP for being in care and control of a motor vehicle, having alcohol in her body and refusing to provide a breath sample on the demand of a police officer.

Mr. Gilles is seeking to have the courts quash an adjudicator's decision and cancel the Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) issued to him after being stopped by police while driving on Bainbridge Avenue in Burnaby, B.C.

Journalism or sensationalism? Are we interested in the facts or writing a story that grabs a reader emotionally and pulls the reader into forming an opinion based on emotion? Unfortunately, I think that this story by Mr.