A woman was found passed out in a van in the front lawn of a Saanich residence with two small children in the back seat Wednesday.

At about 7:30 p.m., a Saanich police officer on patrol spotted a 1996 Toyota van parked on the front lawn of a Knibbs Place residence. When he investigated, he found a woman slumped over the steering wheel of the van and two children asleep in the back seat.

Sgt. Julie Fast, Saanich police spokeswoman, said the van was not damaged and didn’t appear to have been in a crash, but that it only had been parked on the lawn.

The officer spoke with the woman, a 31-year-old Esquimalt resident, realized she was impaired, and arrested her. He also learned she did not live at the Knibbs Place residence, but had been driving the vehicle before parking there.

Paramedics determined the children aged four and six years were okay, but were cold and hungry. They were taken to the police department and later picked up by their father. Saanich police has notified the Ministry of Child and Family Services, which is routine in cases where officers find children in danger.

The woman was also taken to the police department where she blew five times the legal limit. She was immediately take to hospital by paramedics due to her extreme level of intoxication.

Fast said, “Driving with her children while intoxicated so severely could have easily ended in fatalities. It is truly fortunate that no on came to harm by the actions of this woman.”

The woman will stay in hospital until the alcohol dissipates from her system or her condition improves to the point that a family member can care for her. Fast said that police typically hold inebriated individuals for at least six hours, and that recovering from this level of intoxication will likely take days.

“We see a lot of drunk people,” Fast said, “but there are officers with 25 years experience who have never come into contact with someone with a blood level of five times the limit. For some people, that level of intoxication would be fatal.”

jhatherly@tc.canwest.com