Saanich Police have issued a warning after seeing an increase of impaired drivers on the streets than in previous years.
To put it in perspective, in all of 2023, they pulled over a total of 468 impaired drivers.
As of Tuesday, September 10th, they have already surpassed that number with 483 impaired drivers being stopped thus far.
Between July 1st and August 31st of this year, Saanich Police stopped 144 drivers who were found to be impaired behind the wheel.
Saanich Police says that of those drivers:
- 27 lost their license for 24 hours
- 40 lost their license for three days
- One lost their license for seven days
- One lost their license for 30 days
- 65 lost their license for 90 days
A total of ninety-four vehicles were impounded over that two-month period, according to police.
“It’s concerning that drivers continue to get behind the wheel of a vehicle impaired and endanger not only their lives, but the lives of everyone else in our community,” said Chief Constable Dean Duthie.
“Our department is committed to taking these dangerous drivers off the road and will continue to deploy resources to stop this selfish behaviour. To would-be impaired drivers: there is no excuse for driving impaired, and when you are caught, you will face the consequences.”
Police say the 65 drivers who lost their license for 90 days either blew a “fail” or refused to provide a breath sample to our officers.
They added that this is 30 more drivers our officers dealt with in the same period in 2023.
Saanich Police says the increased number of impaired drivers that have been caught in 2024 are a direct result of the department’s increased effort in enforcement.
