In the News

Roadside justice will reduce the grief
By Les Leyne
Times Colonist
April 28, 2010

B.C.'s new drinking driving laws amount to an end run around the laggard, overloaded criminal justice system. The new regime will probably decrease the number of impaired driving charges and effectively decriminalize drunk driving.
The trade-off is that all the new administrative penalties may be more punitive than the impact of a criminal conviction.

It comes down to this: A traffic cop who secures an impaired reading on a hand-held breathalyzer from a driver will be able to rain down such a storm of automatic severe consequences on the offender that laying an actual criminal charge won't even be necessary, except in the most extreme situations.

Impaired driving charges are a roll of the dice for all involved, and have been for years. The Yellow Pages are full of lawyers who know how to make an impaired charge a time-consuming and tedious exercise for cops and everyone else in the system. Prosecutors only advance the most serious offences, those involving injury accidents or readings far above the limit.

On-the-spot 24 hour suspensions -- rather than charges -- are the norm. Plea bargains and dropped charges are commonplace. Ask Rahim Jaffer.

So the new Motor Vehicle Act changes are an effort to make up for all the slack that's crept into the legal system.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving spokesman Andrew Murie said as much at the event announcing the changes:

"These kind of administrative sanctions are quick, happen at roadside and they don't involve the criminal justice system, which is never going to resolve the impaired driving issue in this country or any other country."

The parents of four-year-old Alexa Middelaer -- killed by an alleged drunk driver as she was feeding a horse by the side of a Lower Mainland road -- also had some telling remarks.

The driver's trial is scheduled to start next month, two years -- two years! -- after the tragedy.

Parents Michael and Laurel have been in intensive therapy the whole time and still managed to help lead the campaign for the changes announced.

Said Michael: "Quite frankly we have not the highest expectations, in terms of finding justice, if there is such a thing as justice in this case."

So instead of concentrating on high-minded principles of "justice," the government is taking the harm reduction approach. Punish drunk drivers and get the off the road by any means possible, short of actually charging them.

Here's what could happen to someone who fails a roadside screening check, once the changes become law.

They'll be banned from driving -- immediately, which is new -- for 90 days and charged a $500 "administrative penalty."

The driver's license reinstatement goes to $250 from $100.

The car will be towed and impounded, which will cost about $700 more.

The driver must take a responsible driving program ($880) and buy an ignition interlock device for a year ($1,420).

That's $3,750, much of it levied as fines disguised as fees or levies. (And don't forget the HST, come July.)

In the more egregious cases, criminal charges will come on top of all those headaches. But only rarely.

The striking thing about the new system is that the government is also effectively lowering the legal limit for impairment.

Eighty milligrams of alcohol is set in law, but B.C. will be penalizing people who blow between .05 and .08 as well.

At present, the worse that can happen is a roadside suspension.

Soon it will cost drivers a $200 fine and a three-day suspension, which will escalate if they blow in that grey area more than once over any five-year period.

Plus, there's the new $250 license reinstatement fee.

With impound charges, it amounts to a $600 fine for driving at what is below the legal limit and not an offence, but is to be deemed offensive, nonetheless.

The dramatic reduction in the tolerance threshold will do more damage to the restaurant industry than any impact the HST will have. But as far as arguing public policy goes, there's nothing it can do about it.

All you have to do is sense the grief that still emanates from the Middelaers to know the case for this change is bulletproof.