Vancouver Police are releasing the results for the first weekend of the 2013 summer Counter Attack campaign in the City of Vancouver.
Last Friday, Justice Minister Suzanne Anton and Victoria Chief Constable Jamie Graham announced that police would be out this summer looking for impaired drivers to make our roads safer.
If you choose to drink and drive you could lose your license and your car or, worse, kill yourself or someone else.
Vancouver Police administered 311 roadside tests and removed 53 impaired drivers off the road during the first weekend of this year’s summer Counter Attack campaign:
- 17 Immediate Roadside Suspensions (IRP) “fail” sanctions
- one IRP refusal
- 16 IRP “warn” sanctions
- five 24-hour prohibitions for impairment by alcohol
- four 24-hour prohibition for impairment by drugs
- ten 12-hour prohibitions
Fortunately, these 53 drivers were taken off the road before their decision to get behind the wheel possibly resulted in tragic consequences.
While the amount of impaired drivers on our streets is still concerning, the numbers are down compared with the same weekend last year. In 2012 Vancouver Police issued 28 IRP “fail” sanctions, 15 IRP “warn” sanctions, 12 24-hour prohibitions for drugs/alcohol and 12 new driver 12-hour prohibitions.
No police officer wants to have to make that knock on a door and tell someone their loved one has just been killed by a drunk driver.
“We mean business,” says Inspector Les Yeo, in charge of the VPD Traffic Section. “Around every corner might be a Counter Attack roadblock, so plan ahead, and get home safely.”
