It’s been an exciting start to August at Laketown Ranch on Vancouver Island.
The outdoor music venue hosted tens of thousands of fans on back-to-back weekends to begin the month.
It began with the Sunfest Country Music Festival over the BC Day long weekend, which was followed up by a single-day event headlined by Nickelback on Aug. 9 that included The Glorious Sons and Sam Roberts Band as well.
Unfortunately, several fans on both weekends made the ill-advised decision to leave the venue in their motor vehicle after consuming drugs or alcohol.
Members of the BC Highway Patrol (BCHP) were waiting for them with breath demands and Mandatory Alcohol Screenings (MAS).
Insp. Adam Tallboy called MAS a useful tool to help keep check stops moving quickly.
“We don’t need to form grounds for suspicion, we just read the demand, drivers give a breath, and off we go,” he explained through a media release. “MAS is an incredibly useful tool for keeping roads safe, and we appreciate the patience of all the law-abiding drivers who gave them.”
A total of 11 impaired drivers were taken off the road during or after Sunfest, while 18 were busted trying to leave the Nickelback show on Aug. 9.
Those results came from a combined 362 roadside breath demands, with 277 of them being MAS.
According to the BCHP, another 226 violation tickets were handed out for various motor vehicle infractions.
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Here’s a breakdown of the BCHP’s efforts over both weekends:
Sunfest – 220 roadside breath demands (158 MAS) resulting in:
Nickelback – 142 roadside breath demands (119 MAS) that led to:
Tallboy notes that police officers simply want everyone to get home safe after fun events and concerts like these ones.
“We empathize that no one wants to be slowed down by a check stop,” he said. “It’s simply our job to deliver immediate consequences for driving while impaired.”
