Impaired Driving

The B.C. Coroner's Service has released statistics on All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) deaths in the province from 2009 to 2018. Impaired driving was involved in half of them.

Khalid Almardy was stopped by police in the early morning hours of October 21, 2017 in Victoria as he was a novice driver who was not displaying a new driver sign on his vehicle and was carrying too many passengers. Cst. Christians of the Capital Region Integrated Road Safety Unit detected the odour of liquor on Mr. Almardy's breath. Drivers in the Graduated Licensing Program must have zero blood alcohol when driving.

Question: My neighbour is a chronic alcoholic who regularly drinks and drives. He has been banned from the local liquor store and has run in to a wall with his van. Aside from physically forcing him to stop, who do I report him to before he kills himself and someone else?

Q: I recently dozed off while driving home from work at 1:00 in the afternoon after doing a few late night / early morning shifts. I drove off the road and struck a guardrail doing damage to the truck. RCMP attended and wrote me up for "driving without consideration." I was told it would be $196 fine.

Even five hours after smoking marihuana, young drivers are at an increased risk of a crash according to the results of a clinical trial conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

Effective on December 18, 2018 amendments to the Criminal Code will allow police to demand that any driver stopped for a lawful purpose participate in a screen for alcohol use. Currently police must have a reasonable belief that a driver has alcohol in their body before they can make a screening demand.

Brigitte Schultz was stopped by police in Abbotsford for failing to maintain proper lane position, driving more slowly than normal and failing to stop for a yellow light. She displayed symptoms of impairment and was tested with an approved screening device. The test registered a fail.

Although impaired driving in Canada has generally declined, there are several key considerations to examine in light of bills C-45 and C-46 which warrants concern. At the same time, there are also alternative strategies that can help relieve some of the pressure on the criminal justice system. This analysis underscores that impaired driving is a multi-faceted and complex social issue that remains a relevant public safety concern.

Bill 17, the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act (MVA) 2018 has passed third reading in the legislature. The bill amends the MVA to include provisions for the use of drug screening instruments and the imposition of prohibitions based on the result of using them to test a driver. In addition, a driver may be subject to licence conditions prohibiting the operation of a motor vehicle when the driver has a prescribed drug in their body,

Data BC's data catalogue contains 20 datasets for RoadSafetyBC that include a wide variety of data about motor vehicle collisions in our province. It also contains sets for Immediate Roadside Prohibitions (IRP), vehicle impounds and other driving prohibitions.