“Call volume-wise yes it was a busy weekend,” Sgt. Hillier from the Bonnyville RCMP says

This Victoria Day long weekend, from May 21 – 24, Alberta RCMP removed 121 impaired drivers from our provincial roadways. In participation in National Impaired Driving Enforcement Day on Saturday, RCMP was out patrolling the highways and apprehending motorists under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Sixty-one motorists in the province received Immediate Roadside Sanction (IRS) FAILs for driving with blood alcohol concentrations of .08 or greater. It was the second or even third FAIL occurrence for six of these individuals. Twenty-five drivers received IRS WARNs with blood alcohol concentrations of 0.05 to 0.079. As well, 23 motorists holding GDL licences were issued suspensions and vehicle seizures due to having blood alcohol concentrations greater than zero.

In Bonnyville, the detachment had 63 traffic enforcement contacts between May 20 and May 27.

“Call volume-wise yes it was a busy weekend,” Sgt. Hillier from the Bonnyville RCMP told Lakeland Connect.

From those calls for service, Sgt. Hillier says collisions sent two people to the hospital with injuries. They were also busy keeping the community safe by removing impaired drivers from Lakeland streets.

“Six impaired driver investigations were conducted with two resulting in provincial sanctions,” Sgt. Hillier said.

One of the two Impaired investigations resulted in charges for a driver of an Off-Highway vehicle in the Bonnyville area.

Albertans made several 911 calls to the Alberta RCMP to report possible impaired driving over the weekend. Nine of these calls resulted in the drivers being processed for impaired driving. One call resulted in officers calling for an ambulance, as the motorist was not impaired but rather having a medical episode.

Meanwhile, in St. Paul, Traffic Services observed a driver known to be on a five-year Canada-wide criminal driving prohibition. After initiating a vehicle stop, the driver was found to have eight outstanding warrants and was driving impaired.

Impaired driving is simply not worth the risk, you could kill someone or yourself.

Arrive alive Alberta, don’t drink and drive.

Arthur@lakelandconnect.thedev.ca