BC Highway Patrol says 200+ impaired drivers caught in Light Up the Province campaign

The BC Highway Patrol says 222 drivers were caught impaired Saturday night during the Light Up the Province road safety campaign.

The campaign was launched to remove impaired drivers from the roads. Supt. Dale Carr, operations officer at the BC Highway Patrol, tells CityNews nearly 55,000 drivers were pulled over at 228 check stops across the province.

Police call the numbers encouraging, saying the overall percentage of people pulled over who were found to be impaired “was low.” However, Carr says even one impaired driver can have devastating consequences.

“The catastrophic results of impaired driving can lead to tragedy for families for years to come, so we’re encouraged by the lower numbers but still too many,” Carr said.

The BC Highway Patrol did not give a regional breakdown of where the drivers were caught. It also could not provide numbers from previous years or numbers on which cases were related to alcohol versus drugs.

Carr explains the main reason people engage in impaired driving is because they don’t fully understand how their bodies react to alcohol and drugs.

“They feel like they’re okay to drive, but they’re not,” he said.

He adds drivers often think they won’t get caught because they’ve gotten away with it before.

“I just think it’s important to remember that [impaired driving] is a lifelong thing to carry. For just a few dollars you could take a cab, an Uber, or get a friend to stay sober to get to your destination safely,” Carr said.

-With files from Pippa Norman