Postmedia News: When police arrived, the man was still on his cellphone talking with OPP dispatch. Officers found an open bottle of liquor.
A Windsor-area man pulled his car to the side of the road, put on his four-way flashers and called police Tuesday to report he was too drunk to drive — a situation police say is one of the most unusual impaired driving charges they’ve laid.
Postmedia News: Const. Kevin O’Neil with the Ontario Provincial Police
“In all my years of policing, I’ve never heard of anybody doing this before,” said Const. Kevin O’Neil with the Ontario Provincial Police. “I’ve been doing this job a long time and you always think you’ve heard or seen everything. But needless to say, some of us were a little bit surprised by what we heard about this.”
Donald Dummer, 55, of Essex, was arrested and charged with impaired driving. He will appear in court next month.
O’Neil said the man was driving on Highway 3 on his way to an appointment around 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“For whatever reason, he decided to pull over to the side of the road then and there and call us,” O’Neil said.
It’s not known where the man was headed at the time.
When police arrived, the man was still on his cellphone talking with OPP dispatch. Officers found an open bottle of liquor.
“Really, the message here is look at some of the ridiculous things that people do when they are drinking and driving,” O’Neil said. “We can’t say what he would have done had he not called the police. We are glad that we were able to get this guy off the road.”
You’re going to get caught one way or another, even if it means calling the police to report it yourself
O’Neil said the driver still should have known better than to drive while impaired. He said it doesn’t matter what time of day, the dangers of driving drunk are the same and in the morning there are more cars on the road.
“You could drive off the road and roll your vehicle or fall asleep, pass out behind the wheel. Before you know it, you swerve out to the other lane and you strike an oncoming vehicle,” he said.
Police have laid impaired driving charges at all hours of the day. O’Neil said sometimes people will drink all night long and drive home in the morning, leading to charges around the same time as Tuesday’s incident.
“It’s the same lesson we’ve been preaching for years and years about drinking and driving,” O’Neil said. “You’re going to get caught one way or another, even if it means calling the police to report it yourself.”
Source: National Post