Callers help collar suspected drunk drivers
By: Joe Fantauzzi, Staff Writer
Yorkregion.com
July 11, 2007

Two residents are credited with alerting York Regional Police to an allegedly impaired driver in East Gwillimbury early Sunday morning.

At about 3:15 a.m., the Good Samaritans called after spotting a driver headed north on Yonge Street near Davis Drive in Newmarket.

The callers told police the vehicle was swerving all over the road, hitting the curb at different times.

Cruisers were dispatched from the Newmarket station and boxed the vehicle in at Hwy. 11 and Bathurst Street, where the roads converge near the King Township/East Gwillimbury border.

The arrest came in the second full week of the Safe Roads...Your Call initiative, which encourages you to call 911 when you spot a suspected impaired driver.

“We’re trying to get people over that intimidation they may feel (about calling police) in a suspected impaired driving situation,” traffic bureau Sgt. Brad Bulmer said.

Since the program was launched June 28, York police have received 75 calls resulting in 14 impaired driving-related arrests from residents reporting drivers suspected to be drunk or on drugs.

“Those are 14 impaired drivers that could have gone completely undetected,” Sgt. Bulmer said, adding the program also sends a message to those who drive under the influence: “The eyes are upon you and they are eyes that are willing to take action.”

About 48 hours after the launch of the program, an employee at an electronics company in Vaughan served a man who he believed to be drunk.

When the man drove away, the employee called 911 and police collared the man for impaired driving in the Weston and Rutherford roads area.

On Canada Day, another caller reported a suspected impaired driver had run into some parked vehicles on Charles Alfred Crescent in the McCowan Road and Steeles Avenue area of Markham.

When officers arrived, they found a 27-year-old man had hit a vehicle in a driveway.

He was busted for impaired driving and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

When developing the local program, which is being run in partnership with MADD Canada’s York Region chapter, the region and the nine York municipalities, Sgt. Bulmer decided signs — already appearing along some roads — needed to be readable to everyone in a diverse community.

A number of international logos — a key with a martini glass, a telephone and the numbers 9-1-1 — were decided to be the best.

Twelve four-foot by four-foot signs will eventually go up in 70 and 80 km/h zones, while 50 two-foot by two-foot signs will go up in 60 km/h areas.

They have been purchased by MADD Canada’s York Region chapter.

“Over the summer, they’ll be popping up all over the place,” he said.

Noticing a trend of motorists calling in to report suspected impaired drivers during the annual festive RIDE program this winter, Sgt. Bulmer concluded if that help could be harnessed year-round, it could potentially get another 150 impaired drivers off the streets.

“This campaign is about each one of us taking responsibility for the community and our safety as a whole,” Chief Armand La Barge said in a statement.

Dmitriy Pak, 33, of Newmarket is charged with the impaired operation of a motor vehicle and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol level over 80 milligrams after Sunday’s traffic stop in East Gwillimbury.

Also see...

MADD Canada's Campaign 911