Handout/Stratford Beacon Herald/Postmedia Network
A pair of Perth County OPP cruisers watches for stop-sign infractions and distracted drivers at the intersection of Line 32 and Road 150 in West Perth.
The annual campaign – it started Monday and wraps up Sunday – began eight years ago after a collision killed several people near Hampstead. It focuses on motorists obeying stop signs and distracted drivers.
“I would like to encourage all motorists to consciously stop and look,” Insp. Stephane Pilon said in a statement from the OPP.
It’s advice that would have helped Adam Porr. During one afternoon earlier this year, the 36-year-old man was driving a Ford F-150 on Wilmot Easthope Road in Perth East approaching the Lisbon Road and Line 47 intersection. Despite there being stop signs in all directions Porr proceeded without stopping, turned left onto Line 47, then turned right back onto Wilmot Easthope Road.
Ontario Court Justice Robert Rogerson called it “stupid” driving.
“Rather than stop at a stop sign and proceed through, you made a turn and another turn,” he said.
It also turned out to be impaired driving, as he was still over the legal limit from drinking the night before. The odd manoeuvre attracted the attention of an officer stationed there watching for stop-sign infractions and pulled Porr over. The officer could smell alcohol on his breath, the court heard. Porr admitted to drinking the previous night.
“He indicated he had had nothing to drink since last night,” Crown attorney Elizabeth Wilson said.
However, he failed a roadside test, was arrested, and breath tests ended up being over the limit. After pleading guilty to impaired driving in a Stratford courtroom, he received a $1,500 fine and lost his licence for one year.
“This is going to cause, I’m sure, significant difficulties in your life with your wife and your children, and hopefully you will reflect on that and never get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle again after having consumed alcohol,” Rogerson said.
He apologized to the court and his family.
“I would never have gotten into that truck and driven it if I believed I was unfit to drive. I certainly did not believe I would have been unfit from the night before from drinking,” he said.
Source: The Stratford Beacon Herald