October a DUI month
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Updated: October 15, 2009 11:16 AM
It’s been a troubling start to the month for police patrolling Kamloops roads.
Kamloops RCMP have reported 12 DUIs leading to charges in the first two weeks of October and another 15 to 20 motorists receiving 24-hour roadside suspensions.
During the same two-week stretch in 2008, police reported seven DUIs and 15 one-day suspensions.
Some of the recent DUIs have ended with spectacular crashes, the most recent taking place Oct. 13, when a 20-year-old woman drove her car into the side of the 7-Eleven on Tranquille Road just after midnight and then drove away.
Police were able to locate the vehicle and driver shortly after.
The woman is facing charges of impaired driving.
There were no injuries, but the store suffered significant damage.
Last week, another motorist totalled his car after driving into a light standard on Summit Drive.
He was also arrested for impaired driving.
Const. Cheryl Bush suggested the DUI numbers aren’t significantly higher than last year.
“People need to get the message that if they are going to get behind the wheel of a vehicle, there is a lot of responsibility that goes with that,” she said.
While Bush was unaware of any extra efforts to step up drunk-driving enforcement by local Mounties, she said police actively go after impaired drivers in the city and will respond to calls from the public.
Despite the recent flurry of DUIs, it doesn’t appear Kamloops roads are any less safe than other cities in the Interior.
According to ICBC, there was an annual average of 131 crashes in Kamloops involving alcohol during a five-year period between 2004 and 2008.
In that same time period, Kelowna had an average of 202.
“Kamloops is not an anomaly where it [impaired driving] is a worse problem than other parts of the province,” Michelle Hargrave, senior communications specialist with ICBC, told KTW.
However, she pointed out drunk driving is still one of the leading causes of death in the province.
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