Thompson RCMP encountered nine impaired drivers, issued 78 traffic tickets and checked about 150 vehicles at checkstops July 1-5.
In addition to an impaired boater stopped near the Paint Lake marina July 1 and an impaired driver stopped in the park around 11 p.m. that night, RCMP stopped a vehicle on Highway 6 near Paint Lake Provincial Park just before 10 p.m.. The driver smelled of cannabis and failed a roadside screening test, receiving a seven-day driver’s licence suspension and tickets for several other offences. Their vehicle was also impounded for 30 days.
Three more impaired drivers were stopped by police July 2. The driver of a vehicle pulled over on Deerwood Drive near Cree Road just before 10:30 p.m. displayed signs of alcohol impairment was was arrested for impaired driving. The driver faces multiple charges, including failing to provide a breath sample, and was released to appear in court at a later date. Their driver’s licence was also suspended for 90 days and their vehicle impounded for 60 days. At about the same time, a driver failed a roadside screening test at a checkstop in Paint Lake Provincial Park and was issued a 90-day driver’s licence suspension and had their vehicle impounded for 30 days. Just before midnight in the Paint Lake campground, a driver failed a roadside screening test at a checkstop. They received a 90-day driver’s licence suspension and had their vehicle impounded for 30 days.
A driver stopped on Highway 6 near Paint Lake around 4:30 p.m. July 3 smelled of cannabis and failed a roadside screening test. The driver received a three-day driver’s licence suspension and tickets for several other offences and had their vehicle impounded.
A driver failed a roadside screening test at a checkstop in the Paint Lake campground July 4 and was issued a three-day licence suspension and had their vehicle impounded for the same number of days.
A report of a vehicle screeching its tires around Ashberry Place July 5 led to a traffic stop at Princeton Driver and Station Road. The driver failed a roadside screening test and later provided breath samples more than three times the legal limit for blood alcohol content while driving. They were released to appear in court at a later date.
Among the tickets issued by Thompson RCMP July 1-5 were 27 for speeding, with the highest speed being 149 kilometres per hour in a 100 km/h zone. There were also nine tickets for driving unregistered vehicles, seven for learner’s licence holders driving without supervising drivers, six for failing to slow down and move over for stopped emergency vehicles and five for driving without a driver’s licence. Two tickets each were issued for not wearing a seatbelt, children not riding in car seats, unlawful transport of alcohol or cannabis, driving with a suspended licence and learner’s licence holders failing to comply with zero drug/alcohol restrictions.
One person driving without a licence was a youth under 16 in the Paint Lake campground. An adult was ticketed for allowing an unauthorized person to drive a motor vehicle, apparently because they thought the campground would be a good place for the youth to gain driving experience.
A driver was ticketed for driving around the campground with a three-year-old sitting on the roof of the car through the open sunroof because it was too hot inside the vehicle. The tickets included one for driving with a child not in a car seat and another for driving with a passenger in a part of the vehicle not designed or equipped for passenger seating.
