Bowen RCMP are hoping to curb a concerning motorist trend which has recently developed on island roads.
Over the past two months eight impaired driving charges have been laid leading to either licence suspensions or criminal charges. Adding to the alarm is the fact that five of these resulted in crashes, many of them severe and some causing injury to the occupants of the vehicle.
“I’ve been here three years and as a concentration of incidents this is by far the most that have taken place,” says Cst. Paul Towne with the Bowen Island RCMP. “We’ve been lucky that nobody has been seriously injured or worse at this point.”
Towne stresses that the dangers and consequences of drunk driving aren’t limited to those in the vehicle. The decision to get behind the wheel after drinking also puts pedestrians and other road users at risk, especially in well travelled areas where some of these incidents have taken place.
“The first one was around 7 pm and happened at a high traffic and pedestrian traffic area on Miller Road, right outside the detachment,” explains Towne. “Another one was in the morning (7 am) when a vehicle slid down a bank on Miller Road. That particular area is high traffic for morning walkers and dog walkers.”
“It was extremely lucky that nobody was hurt given the location and the times of the day when these drivers have been neglecting not only their own safety, but the safety of all the people on the island,” says Towne.
Regarding the morning rollover – where an impaired driving charge was laid – Towne says that people can mistakenly think they’re okay to drive the morning after a night of drinking. “If you feel like you’re still impaired the next morning, then don’t get behind the wheel… Just because you’ve slept for two or three hours, it doesn’t mean that your body’s expelled all that alcohol.”
In response to these incidents Bowen RCMP have been adapting their roadblock strategy with regards to both frequency and time of day. Over a few hours during the May long weekend alone three impaired driving charges were laid during one night and the following morning.
“Don’t think you can predict when the roadblocks are going to be,” says Towne. He points out in the past, “Some residents on Bowen quickly worked out when the police might not be working, and at those times when they know – or they think they know – that the police aren’t working they’re more inclined to take those risks. More recently we’ve been doing roadblocks or patrols at random times, and we’ve found that we have had a lot of success in taking impaired motorists off the road that way.”
Towne reminds people that for several years now the provincial Motor Vehicle Act allows officers to request a mandatory breath sample without cause. Anyone who registers a reading above 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (commonly known as .08) on an approved screening device is deemed to have failed and faces penalties including a licence suspension and vehicle impoundment. This level of impairment also results in a criminal code charge, as does refusing to provide a breath sample at all.
A lesser penalty exists for any driver registering a breath sample above 50 milligrams (.05) but below 80. This results in a three-day licence suspension, and possible seizing of the vehicle.
The financial cost of an impaired driving charge is steep, and includes paying to reinstate your licence, vehicle impound charges, and legal fees for criminal charges on readings above .08. A condition of restoring your licence may also be installing an Interlock device on your vehicle – at your expense – which a person must blow into before starting the vehicle to ensure they haven’t been drinking.
Towne adds there are further serious financial burdens to consider following a drunk driving conviction, including potential loss of income if you lose your job because you can’t drive to work, along with the possibility of a passenger, pedestrian, or other victim of a drunk driving accident taking you to court for damages if there are injuries resulting from a crash.
“Don’t get caught out and try and plan ahead,” says Towne. “I know that Bowen doesn’t have a formal cab company, but the great thing about a community is that people know each other and people can arrange for either a designated driver or another way to get home.”
“There are always other ways to get back rather than taking that risk of driving your own vehicle – such as staying put. Plan ahead is really the message on that.”
And as the weather gets nicer and the days get longer, Towne says it’s especially important now to quash these incidents of drunk driving. “We want to see a reverse in this trend… We want Bowen residents who are walking around the island to feel safe while walking the paths and trails that are roadside, without the risk of drivers who are making silly choices to get behind the wheel,” he says.
