Oak Bay Police arrest alleged impaired driver after car lands on beach near marina

Oak Bay Police arrest alleged impaired driver after car lands on beach near marina
Oak Bay Police / Twitter
The Oak Bay Police Department has arrested a Victoria woman after she was caught driving on the beach near the marina.

The Oak Bay Police Department has arrested a Victoria woman after she was caught driving, allegedly impaired, on the beach near the marina.

According to Oak Bay PD, patrol officers received a report shortly after 10:00 p.m. on Nov. 23 of a hit and run motor vehicle incident in the 2400 block of Lansdowne Rd.

Police say that a witness claimed she heard a collision on the street outside her home and when she went outside, she saw a black sedan had struck a silver SUV.

“The female driver of the sedan appeared to be impaired as she was stumbling and had slurred speech when she exited her vehicle to examine the damage,” Oak Bay Police wrote in a report.

The driver examined the damage, picked up her licence plate from the ground and returned to her vehicle before leaving the scene, the witness told police.

Oak Bay Police said that a short time later, an officer located the vehicle, driving along Beach Drive.

The police officer pulled a U-turn in order to follow the driver and, as they approached the 1300 block of Beach Drive, the driver is said to have failed to navigate the curve in the road and continued straight.

Police say the vehicle left the road, travelled over the seawall onto the beach area in front of Oak Bay Marina.

“The driver then attempted to flee from police by travelling approximately 75 feet across the beach,” reads a statement in the police report.

Officers arrested the 43-year-old female driver on the scene. The Victoria resident was charged with Refusing To Provide A Breath Sample, Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle, and Failure To Stop After an Accident.

“You know someone is impaired when they cross the oncoming lane, go over a 5-foot seawall, and then keep driving on the beach. Scary that these people get behind the wheel!” reads a message from Oak Bay’s official Twitter account.

Police say no one was harmed in the incident and the driver spent the night in jail.

She will be appearing in court on February 17, 2021.

READ MORE: VicPD investigates fatal, single-vehicle crash in Vic West

Graham CoxGraham Cox

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