‘We don’t make this stuff up’: Impaired driver in Ladysmith goes through road check twice

'We don’t make this stuff up': Impaired driver in Ladysmith goes through road check twice
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RCMP officers working in Ladysmith this winter say they encountered one impaired driver who came through a road check not once, but twice.

BC RCMP Traffic Services have recently wrapped up the Winter CounterAttack Impaired Driving Campaign and some of the situations that police encountered left officers scratching their heads, resulting in several files from this season being classified under the category, “We don’t make this stuff up!”

As a driver, it is less than ideal to have your decisions end up in this category because they become prime police examples for what not to do. This was certainly the case for one Vancouver Island driver in the Ladysmith area during the course of the campaign.

RCMP officers who were working in Ladysmith say they encountered one individual who came through a road check not once, but twice.

Police say that the first time through, the driver stopped for the officer, however, drove off when asked to pull to the side of the road.

“For reasons that can only be attributed to the driver’s impairment,” said police, the man drove through the road check a second time a short while after.

During the second instance, the man stopped long enough to hand his licence to the officer before fleeing again.

The police officer opted to not “put the public at risk by pursuing the individual,” but rather completed a high-risk driver report to RoadSafetyBC.

A few days later, police say that the officer attended the driver’s home and served him with numerous violation tickets and a four-month driving prohibition “to remind him of his poor behaviour.”

In a word of advice from the BC RCMP Traffic Services, police say it is recommended for drivers to follow directions at a road check because the consequences may be worse if they drive off.

“While these stories are amusing, police take impaired driving offences very seriously. As we have seen many times in the past, the consequences of poor decision making when it comes to impaired driving can be deadly,” reads a statement from BC RCMP Traffic Services.

Police recommend calling 9-1-1 for anyone that believes they are following an impaired driver.

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Graham CoxGraham Cox

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