Mounties on Vancouver Island say they stopped a “record” number of impaired drivers during the four-day Sunfest Country Music Festival in Lake Cowichan last weekend. Officers issued immediate roadside prohibitions and suspensions to 36 drivers during the festival, according to a Friday statement from the BC Highway Patrol. The previous record, according to the BCHP, was 25, set in 2024. Last year, police stopped 11 impaired drivers during the festival. This year’s stops included 19 three-day immediate roadside prohibitions, which are issued the first time a driver registers a “warn” reading on a screening device, as well as nine 90-day IRPs for drivers who registered “fail” readings. Six others received 24-hour suspensions, “typically for drug-impaired driving,” the BCHP said, adding that officers issued two 12-hour suspensions to novice or learner drivers who had any amount of drugs or alcohol in their systems. “To say that I’m concerned would be an understatement,” said Insp. Adam Tallboy, the officer in charge of BC Highway Patrol on Vancouver Island, in the statement. “This increase shows outrageously poor decision-making. If you can’t have fun without doing the minimal planning required to avoid impaired driving, you don’t deserve to drive.” Tallboy added that motorists should expect “even more check stops” in the future as police use “whatever legal tools” they can to stop impaired driving.
