B.C. woman ticketed for drinking, driving even though she wasn’t behind wheel: lawyer

NELSON (NEWS 1130) – Ticketed at a roadblock for drinking even though she wasn’t behind the wheel, a B.C. mother is exploring her options after she claims a Mountie abused his power. But the RCMP says that’s not the whole story.

After drinking at a holiday party last Friday, the woman called her 22-year-old son, who she says has an N licence, to pick her and her husband up. The RCMP disputes this – in a statement to NEWS 1130 they say, according to their files, he actually has an L licence.

The woman’s lawyer, Sarah Leamon, says that night the trio was stopped at a roadblock in the Nelson-area.

“The officer assessed the driver, who was stone-cold sober, and when he was satisfied that the driver was sober, immediately started questioning my client,” she explained.

The mother was in the front passenger seat and her husband was in the back. The RCMP says both were “seemingly intoxicated.”

“When she said, ‘Yes, I’ve had a few drinks tonight,’ he pulled her out of the vehicle and had her submit to a roadside breath test,” Leamon told NEWS 1130.

When she failed the breathalyzer, the officer issued the mother a ticket, suspended her licence for 90 days, and impounded the family vehicle for 30 days — even though she wasn’t behind the wheel.

“My client was trying to do the right thing, in my opinion, by arranging a safe, sober ride home,” Leamon said.

“The officer says, in his evidence that I have now obtained from Roadsafety B.C., that he was of the opinion that my client — the driver’s mother — sitting in the passenger seat, was not in a sober-enough state to properly supervise him.”

Under B.C. law, an N driver isn’t allowed to have more than one passenger in the vehicle with them, unless they have a supervisor over the age of 25 with a valid licence. However, this doesn’t apply to immediate family members.

“In this case, everybody in that vehicle was an immediate family member to the N driver,” the lawyer said.

But the RCMP says the lawyer’s facts are wrong. Sergeant Chad Badry told NEWS 1130 in a statement that the driver actually had an L licence – that means the rules are different, giving the supervising passenger a much bigger responsibility.

“For their own safety, and the safety of others on BC roads, RCMP recommend that anyone who chooses to provide oversight and guidance to any driver, no matter their experience behind the wheel, in the graduated licencing program to be sober and fully prepared to safely provide input at any time to the vehicles steering,” Badry says in a statement.

“The driver, who produced a valid Class 7 Learner’s (L) Driver’s Licence, was transporting two seemingly intoxicated adult passengers inside his vehicle.”

Badry says the woman in the passenger seat, the driver’s mother, “was identified as the learner driver’s qualified supervisor” and because of her level of intoxication, her licence was suspended.

The family has submitted an appeal with Roadsafety B.C., and is currently exploring further legal options.

Meanwhile, the RCMP says they’ve cancelled the woman’s 90-day licence suspension.