Members of the BC Highway Patrol were busy in the Salmo area over the past two weeks.
Following the annual Shambhala Music Festival, police set up a road check outside the grounds to focus on impaired and fatigued drivers leaving the four-day event.
According to the BCHP, a “staggering” 57 impaired drivers were removed from the road, while 162 violation tickets were issued for a number of offences including vehicle defects, unlicensed drivers and uninsured vehicles.
Impaired driving specialist investigators were brought in from around the province and they completed 85 field sobriety tests, 20 drug recognition evaluations and 11 approved screening device tests.
“These statistics are frightening considering we were only able to check a small portion of the people attending the festival and these people were aware there would be police road checks,” said Insp. Chad Badry. “While I’m sure many had a good time at the festival, it is unacceptable to put everyone on the roadways at risk.”
Badry also thanked motorists for their patience, as the road checks added to the already-existing congestion that comes with a mass exodus of a major music festival.
“We really appreciated the patience of many of the people caught up in the road checks that had not attended the festival,” he added. “Particularly those who took the time to express their appreciation to our officers for taking the extra effort to keep our roads safe.”
BCHP officers were busy in the area before the festival as well, which included a whopping 447 contacts related to speeding, which included 37 excessive speeders and 55 other violations.
One excessive speeding violation was a tractor-trailer unit that was travelling through the reduced speed area at the entrance to Shambhala, while another violator led to a drug-trafficking investigation.
Officers also took three impaired drivers and three prohibited drivers off the road before the festival.
