B.C. Mounties recently wrapped up their winter campaign to counter impaired driving, generating new material for the 鈥渨e don鈥檛 make this stuff up鈥� file.
Cpl. Mike Halskov, with BC RCMP traffic services, said Wednesday that police all across the province caught people getting behind the wheel while impaired, including a few repeat offenders.
Here鈥檚 a look at a few of the cases:
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Driver tries to school officer on roadside laws
A man in Cranbrook found out the hard way that having a history of impaired driving didn鈥檛 necessarily mean they were an expert on the particular criminal code offence.
According to police, the man refused to give a breath sample after being pulled over by a 鈥渟easoned officer,鈥� insisting that this wasn鈥檛 illegal and all the Mountie could do was issue a 90-day roadside prohibition.
鈥淭he officer chose to follow the law rather than the driver鈥檚 advice and charged him criminally with refusing to provide breath samples,鈥� Halskov said.
Shortly after the driver was dropped off at home, he called the local detachment to report his vehicle stolen.
鈥淒on鈥檛 drive impaired and then try to educate the officer on the law 鈥� we know our authorities and what we are doing.鈥�
Impaired driver goes through road block twice
On Vancouver Island, officers in the Ladysmith area encountered a driver who came through a road check not once, but twice.
In the first instance, the driver stopped for the officer, but drove off when asked to pull to the side of the road.
鈥淔or reasons that can only be attributed to the driver鈥檚 impairment, he came through the road check a second time, stopping long enough to hand his driver鈥檚 licence to the officer before fleeing again,鈥� Halskov said.
Instead of pursuing the individual in a chase, the officer sent a driving report to RoadSafetyBC. A few days later, the officer attended the driver鈥檚 home and served him with numerous violation tickets, as well as a four-month driving prohibition.
鈥淭he lesson: Police recommend following directions at a road check but, if you choose not to, the consequences may be worse than if you had,鈥� Halskov said.
While these stories cause a chuckle or two, RCMP are urging all British Columbians to not drive while impaired and report any suspected driving under the influence to police.
鈥淎s we have seen many times in the past, the consequences of poor decision making when it comes to impaired driving can be deadly,鈥� Halskov said.
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