VANCOUVER – A drunk-driving law the B.C. government says is the toughest in the country came into force Monday.
Effective Monday, B.C. drivers now face a 90-day driving ban for blowing over 0.08 blood alcohol level.
They also will see their car impounded for 30 days, may face a criminal charge and up to $4,060 in penalties.
“This will impose the toughest sanction in the land, and we hope, change behaviour,” said provincial Solicitor-General Mike de Jong.
Refusing to give a breathalyzer sample at the roadside is no longer a way out, he said. Officers can now impose roadside bans of more than 24 hours on drivers, without having to take them back to the station.
“The biggest impact is the immediacy of the penalty,” said Mr. de Jong. “You’ve now got a situation if someone insists on drinking and driving, there’s a pretty good chance they have to go home and tell their spouse … that they don’t have the car.”
Mr. De Jong said the new rules are in honour of four-year-old Alexa Middelaer, who was killed outside her Ladner, B.C., home by an impaired driver in 2008.
“The tragic death of a beautiful four-year-old girl reminds us again that people have to make choices, and when they make bad choices, tragedy ensues,” he said.
“She is a poignant reminder how catastrophic that tragedy can be for families, for everyone.”
Mr. De Jong said he wants to reverse the upward trend in B.C.’s drunk-driving deaths, and slash drunk-driving deaths by over a third within three years.
And he denied claims the new motor vehicle changes are a cash-grab.
“It’s not true,” he said. “It ignores the immense cost that accrues to society including the government from the deaths and injuries that drunk-driving causes.”
He also denies the claim that they’re too draconian.
“They are tough,” said Mr. de Jong. “I wish I was in a position to report that the incidents of drunk-driving were on the decrease.”
Anyone blowing in the “˜warning range’ of between 0.05 and 0.08 faces a three-day driving ban and a $200 fine. A second offence carries a seven-day ban and $300 fine, and a third will lead to a 30-day driving ban and $400 fine.
And speeders caught doing more than 40 kilometres per hour over the posted speed limit will have their vehicles impounded for at least a week, and as long as two months for more speeding offences.
They also face escalating penalties, ranging from fines to increased insurance premiums.
Street racers face a similar weeklong impoundment, as do tailgaters, and drivers caught pulling wheelies and doughnuts.
Bob Rorison, president of the Metro Vancouver chapter of MADD, called the new rules “˜innovative’, by getting drunk-drivers off the road immediately.
“The provincial government has stepped in with laws that will stop the drinking-driver in their tracks,” Mr. Rorison said.
“These laws now give every policeman in B.C. the ability to remove licences, impound cars and impose fines, immediately at the roadside.”
According to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, there were 3,700 crashes last year in the province where alcohol was a factor, resulting in 2,300 injuries.
And speed was a factor in 4,700 crashes, which caused 3,500 injuries.
Between 2005 and 2009, annual drunk-driving deaths in B.C. have averaged 115, and annual speed-related deaths averaged 155.
NDP public safety critic Mike Farnworth welcomed the tougher laws.
“Anyone who has witnessed the absolute carnage caused by drinking and driving, and the devastating effect it has on the victims and their families, will know exactly why these changes have been put in place,” said Mr. Farnworth.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable that people continue to drink and drive.”
Vancouver Province
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