A Vancouver Island woman is speaking out, after being forced to fight a roadside prohibition because of a disability that prevented her from blowing in a breathalyzer.
Jamie Vanderleek was successful in beating the charge, but says many others in her case haven’t been so lucky.
Vanderleek, a full-time nurse, was on vacation in the Okanagan earlier this month when she was pulled over and given a field sobriety test.
Venderleek lives with Bell’s palsy, a condition that involves a partial paralysis or weakening of facial muscles, and said she tried to explain to the RCMP officer that it could interfere with her ability to use the breathalyzer.
“I did warn him off the top,” she said.
“I have a hard time making a seal with my mouth, when I eat food falls out, when I try and drink through a straw I can’t do it properly.”
As she had feared, despite 12 attempts Vanderleek wasn’t able to register a proper reading on the device.
She says she offered to do a blood test, but that the officer refused. Her vehicle was impounded on the spot, and she had her licence temporarily suspended.
“I just stared down at my feet in complete humiliation trying not to cry,” she said. “I had no way of proving my innocence.”
Kyla Lee, a Vancouver lawyer who specializes in driving cases, says the consequences of failing a roadside test are severe.
“She was facing 90 days of no driving, a 30 day vehicle impoundment — and it was the family vehicle while on vacation — she also was facing a $500 fine, a $250 licence reinstatement fee, and at the end of all of that would have been referred to a responsible driver program to learn about the dangers of alcohol and driving,” Lee explained.
Standard breathalyzers do have a setting that allows them to collect a partial setting, designed for people with breathing issues.
In British Columbia, that feature has been disabled because it usually results in a lower alcohol reading.
“But the degree to which it’s going to be lower is not going to be so significant that it justifies punishing people like Ms. Vanderleek and all of the other people with disabilities and medical conditions that have been physically incapable of providing a sample and have had to face the consequences,” Lee argued.
In the end, Vanderleek was able to have her case heard at a Road Safety B.C. review hearing, but had to pay a $200 fee within seven days in order to have her case heard.
That hearing overturned her prohibition. But she says others who may be living on disability income assistance might not be able to make a similar payment.
“It’s not about me. I’m a nurse and I’ve spent my life caring for other people,” she said.
“There’s other people with disabilities out there that have reached out to me and said this happened to me too and they couldn’t get it overturned. To me that’s a real injustice.”