Long Weekend Crackdown Takes Impaired Drivers Off Highway Near Lake Cowichan

The BC Highway Patrol says more than two dozen impaired drivers were removed from the road in the Lake Cowichan area during the Canada Day long weekend. 

The music festival in Lake Cowichan was a focus of increased enforcement during the long weekend. 

Highway patrol says 265 drivers were asked to provide breath samples at roadside checks and officers found 26 impaired drivers. 

Twenty-four had consumed alcohol and two were impaired by drugs. 

Staff Sgt. Adam Tallboy, acting Officer in Charge of BC Highway Patrol for Vancouver Island, says finding nearly one out of every 10 drivers tested over the weekend was impaired is of great concern. 

The roadside prohibitions issued ranged from three days to 90 days depending on blood alcohol concentration, and vehicles were impounded.