Keen-eyed Oak Bay residents helped to take two impaired drivers off the roads within a two-and-a-half-hour span on Saturday.
In the first incident at 5:52 p.m., Oak Bay police received a report of an impaired driver in the 1100-block of Beach Drive. A resident reported seeing a man consuming alcohol and driving away.
Police located the 61-year-old man and his vehicle on Windsor Road. He was arrested for impaired driving after refusing to provide a breath sample.
At 8:24 p.m., police got another call about an impaired driver. The witness reported following a vehicle that was swerving excessively and ran a stop sign after nearly hitting two parked cars.
The witness continued to update police on the man’s location, and officers located the 69-year-old driver in the 2000-block of Milton Street. The driver failed a roadside breath test and was issued a 90-day immediate probation, said police.
The impaired-driving charges came as police forces across the region and province step up roadside checks over the busy holiday season.
The Insurance Corporation of B.C. says 21% of all fatal crashes every year in the province are the result of impaired driving, with 61 people dying each year in crashes involving impaired drivers.
On Vancouver Island, 11 people each year are killed and 310 injured in impaired-driving crashes.
Nanaimo RCMP says officers took 10 impaired drivers off the road on the first night of a Christmas Counterattack roadblock on Dec. 2.
Traffic unit officers stopped more than 300 vehicles over a six-hour period. In total, 17 drivers were asked to provide breath samples, resulting in 10 fails.
Nine of those were dealt with under the Motor Vehicle Act. They got a 90-day driving prohibition and their vehicles were impounded.
However one driver who had been issued with a 90-day prohibition in September for impaired driving was caught again.
The driver provided two breath samples, both well over the legal limit, and was issued a notice to appear in court in February for driving over the legal limit under the Criminal Code, police said.
