Changes to BC’s impaired driving laws
Posted May 3, 2012 2:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The province’s justice ministry says it will be mandatory for police to let drivers know their right to challenge their first ‘FAIL’ or ‘WARN’ result by doing a second test.
Police will also be forced to take the lower of the two readings.
Officers will have to file sworn reports on roadside suspensions to their superintendent and grounds for the review process on the reliability of breathalyzers are being expanded.
Officers will also have to give their supervisors documents proving the breathalyzers are calibrated properly.
A defence lawyer is dismissing the province’s changes to its drunk driving legislation as “minor steps”.
Lawyer Michael Shapray says it’s a nice start but the the laws still have some glaring holes.
“There is no ability to challenge the officers, there’s no ability to cross examine an officer, you don’t get a hearing in front of a judge, you don’t get taken back to the police station for a more sophisticated breathalyzer test.”
Shapray expects people will challenge the law if they are given roadside suspensions.
At least 15,000 people were fined and penalized for blowing over the limit while the law was in place.
