This weekend police charged seven people in suspected drunk driving cases ranging from bad driving to crashes that sent people to hospital.
From Jan. 6 to Jan. 8 officers from the Okotoks RCMP, local sheriffs and highway traffic enforcement officers responded to calls from the public and to crash sites where drivers were suspected to be too drunk to drive.
It started on Jan. 6 at 2 a.m. with a rollover at the intersection of Highway 7 and 64th Street West. The 17-year-old driver was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and charges are pending. Over the next three days police observed five more vehicles being driven erratically and subsequently laid charges after a breathalyzer test showed the driver had a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit.
In one case a man driving in a residential area in Okotoks’ Westmount subdivision was reported to police and in another instance a driver called in a complaint about a vehicle on the busy Highway 2A coming into Okotoks.
The most serious crash occurred on Jan. 8 when an 18-year-old man speeding along Southridge drive just after 2:30 a.m. lost control and launched off a snow bank, landing in the parking lot of the Southridge Chrysler, striking three cars. He was taken to hospital in non-life threatening condition and charges are pending.
The people charged for impaired driving over the last week range in age from 17 to 60 and the majority live in the foothills, with only one of the suspects hailing from Coalhurst, Alberta. In several cases vehicles were stopped within minutes of each other during the early morning hours, around the times bars close. One suspect was stopped as he left the Okotoks bar In Cahoots.
Sgt. Ian Shardlow of the Okotoks RCMP said it is disappointing to see a spike in the number of drunk driving charges following a quiet holiday season.
“We are hoping there isn’t a perception out there that we aren’t as diligent as we are over the holidays,” he said.
Shardlow said police are always on the lookout for drunk drivers and adds the public has also been cognizant of spotting and reporting suspected drunk drivers.
“You are pretty much a social pariah if you drive drunk,” Shardlow said.
In four of the seven recent arrests members of the public tipped off police.
“We want to thank the people who helped us this weekend,” he said. “These cases hinge on people calling us and who are willing to participate in the process.”
Shardlow said it is only luck that prevented a drunk driving related fatality last weekend in the foothills, unlike Calgary where suspected drunk drivers caused four deaths.
