Man arrested for driving toy Barbie Jeep on northern B.C. street

A man was arrested for driving offences after allegedly taking a pink, toy Barbie jeep on a drunken ride in Prince George.

A man was arrested for two driving offences in northern B.C. Friday — even though he was behind the plastic wheel of a child-sized pink Barbie Jeep.

The Prince George RCMP said the detachment started getting reports about a man driving a toy car on the road around 9 a.m.

“The streets were very busy at the time. Our police officer conducted a traffic stop with the vehicle to assess what was happening,” spokesperson Cpl. Jennifer Cooper said in a statement.

“While it might seem to some to be an inefficient use of police time to pull over a driver in a toy car, the risk the driver was creating to other motorists on the road who were forced to go around him, coupled with the risk to himself as other drivers are not in the habit of looking for toy cars on the busy road, was enough to warrant police attention.”

Regardless of size or speed, the law defines a motor vehicle as a conveyance “powered by anything other than muscular power,” Mounties said, explaining why the driver of a toy car could face charges or fines for driving offences.

In this case, police found the driver of the toy car had a suspended licence, and arrested him for prohibited driving. Suspecting the man was impaired by alcohol, police conducted two breathalyzers, both of which the man allegedly failed.

He was handed a 90-day driving prohibition and released with a promise to appear in court at a later date.

“The file remains under investigation,” the statement from police concluded.