The highly popular Shambhala Music Festival, an electronic music and arts festilval held last weekend near Salmo, kept B.C. Highway Patrol crews busy.
In the week leading up to the event, police took a handful of impaired and prohibited drivers off the road and also handed out dozens of tickets.
During that period, officers dealt with three impaired drivers, three prohibited drivers and had 447 contacts related to speeding, 37 of which were excessive speeding (more than 40 km/h over the speed limit), BCHP said.
Police said they impounded all the vehicles of the excessive speeders. They also handed out 55 tickets for other violations.
The situation deteriorated after the festival wrapped up on Sunday, when police turned their focus to impaired or fatigued drivers.
On Monday and Tuesday, BCHP said, its officers “removed a staggering 57 impaired drivers from the road and issued 162 violation tickets in relation to a variety of offences, from vehicle defects to unlicensed drivers and uninsured vehicles.”
In all, specialized driving investigators completed 85 field sobriety tests, 20 drug recognition evaluations and 11 approved screening device tests.
“These statistics are frightening, considering we were only able to check a small portion of the people attending the festival and these people were aware there would be police road checks,” BCHP Insp. Chad Badry said.
“While I’m sure many had a good time in the festival, it is unacceptable to put everyone on the roadways at risk.
“The RCMP takes impaired and dangerous driving infractions seriously and has always remained dedicated to removing impaired drivers from the roads.”
Police also said that many drivers not attending the festival were caught up in congestion during enforcement activities.
“Many of those who expressed their frustration were not aware that Shambhala is a private event on private land,” BCHP said, adding the festival does not pay for the extra policing that’s needed.
“We really appreciated the patience of many of the people caught up in the road checks that had not attended the festival,” Badry said, “particularly those who took the time to express their appreciation to our officers for taking the extra effort to keep our roads safe.”
Global News has reached out to the music festival for comment.