A Vancouver driver spotted heading the wrong way up White Rock’s Everall Street this week was handed a 24-hour suspension and may be criminally charged as a result.
Const. Chantal Sears said officers conducting evening patrols on Dec. 9 came across the wrong-way driver in the 1300-block of Everall.
A vehicle was “driving towards him on the wrong side of the street,” Sears notes in a news release issued Friday (Dec. 10).
While the 43-year-old driver blew under the legal limit for alcohol, the officer wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t impaired.
“Given his other physical symptomology an officer trained as a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) was asked to attend,” the release continues.
READ MORE: White Rock police focus on drug, alcohol impairment this holiday season
Following an evaluation that consisted of sobriety tests; taking blood pressure, body temperature, pulse and other “clinical indicators”; and measuring the driver’s pupil size in different lighting conditions, “the DRE officer determined that the driver was impaired and that the impairment was a result of one or more category of drugs.”
A urine sample was also demanded, and once toxicology results are returned, charges may be laid.
White Rock RCMP announced earlier this month that it had boosted its contingent of officers trained as drug-recognition experts, and that they would be putting an increased focus on drug-impaired driving this holiday season.
Friday’s release notes that a refusal to undergo the evaluation or failure to provide a bodily-fluid sample “will result in criminal charges that have the same, or greater, penalties as driving while impaired by alcohol.”
In addition to the 24-hour suspension, the driver’s vehicle was impounded.
tholmes@peacearchnews.com
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