When it comes to drinking and driving, some people still aren’t getting the message.
The BC RCMP’s Winter Impaired Driving Campaign has wrapped up for another year, and the numbers show that every day in December 2024, BC Highway Patrol took an average of 8.61 impaired drivers off the road. That’s 267 impaired drivers in one month: an impaired driver caught every three hours for 31 days.
“The Winter Impaired Driving Campaign clearly shows that education is not enough for people who choose to drive while impaired,” says Superintendent Mike Coyle, acting officer in charge of BC Highway Patrol. “Nobody is surprised when they fail a roadside screening device and their vehicle is towed. Enforcement is a necessary follow-up to education.”
The December 2024 prohibitions issued in BC Highway Patrol’s five regions break down as follows:
North (100 Mile House and north, excluding Clearwater): 52 prohibitions.
South East Central (including Vernon, Kelowna, Kamloops, and Clearwater): 81 prohibitions.
Lower Mainland (including Pemberton to Hope): 45 prohibitions.
South East Kootenay (including Revelstoke, Salmon Arm, Grand Forks, east to Alberta): 36 prohibitions.
Vancouver Island: 53 prohibitions.
Some regions, particularly Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, have large municipal and RCMP traffic enforcement units. Any prohibitions issued by them for impaired driving are not part of the BC Highway Patrol data.
In B.C., penalties for impaired driving range from a 24-hour prohibition if police have reasonable grounds to believe that alcohol or drugs impaired your ability to drive, to a 3-, 7-, 30-, or 90-day prohibition if a breath sample proves that alcohol has impaired your ability to drive. A 30- or 90-day prohibition also means that your vehicle is impounded for thirty days, and you could be charged under the Criminal Code. Penalties, towing and impound costs, and licence reinstatement fees range from $600 to $1,430, and do not include any potential increase in insurance premiums.
The annual Winter Impaired Driving Campaign is a province-wide initiative in support of National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, and features enhanced enforcement through check stops and patrols.
The winter campaign is the second-busiest time of year for impaired driving enforcement. The busiest time of year is the Summer Impaired Driving Campaign, which runs from June to August.
