A complaint from a concerned citizen led to an impaired driving arrest.
Deputy Chief Shane St. John with the Weyburn Police Service uses the incident to shed light on the importance of Report Impaired Driving (RID) complaints, thanking the person who reported the driver.
"We're thanking the public for a written complaint calling in suspicious driver, and they were dead on - this person was impaired by alcohol."
St. John explains sometimes these calls turn up drivers that are only distracted or otherwise not impaired, however, they are still significant.
"Then at least they know, even if they're not impaired, they know 'the public is watching how I drive and what I'm doing so, I better be careful and pay attention'."
When officers located the erratic driver, they observed signs of impairment. They were arrested and provided breath samples that detected a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit. St. John explains officers can arrest a driver is impairment is obvious even without a roadside test, other times a test is done before an arrest is made. How far over the limit the driver is will influence license suspension and vehicle impoundment.
"Depending on the on the level, anything over a certain level, you're impounded for 60 days, I think it's 160 milligrams of alcohol in in your body. If it's below that, it's 30 days. If it's multiple offenses, it's back up to 60 days."
"If they are under, and blow a warning, that then starts a 72-hour suspension, the vehicle is still towed, and they have a three-day suspension."
After their arrest, the driver was later released with a future court appearance.