While incidents of drinking and driving are on the decline, thanks in part to the much tougher provincial rules about blood alcohol limits, the Tuesday, May 6 crash in Aldergrove illustrates that some people simply don’t care.
A 32-year-old Abbotsford man, who has yet to be charged in connection with the crash, was seen by witnesses exiting his smashed vehicle, grabbing a case of beer, and heading to a nearby fast food restaurant — despite broken bones in his leg.
The man had apparently been driving at a high rate of speed. Witnesses report him passing on the right at a high rate of speed as he was getting off the freeway at 264 Street. Shortly afterwards, he smashed into a minivan driven by a woman and carrying five small children. Thankfully, no one in the van was seriously injured.
Langley RCMP are now reporting that the man has no valid driver’s licence, and the car he was driving was not insured. The case is sounding more and more like another one in Aldergrove, which ended in tragedy.
Carly Regan, a 13-year-old girl, was struck and killed by Paul Wettlaufer, a drunk driver who also did not have a licence. He did not come forward, but hid his vehicle. It was eventually found, he was arrested, and eventually jailed.
While such cases are thankfully rare, there are some people who have serious drinking problems and should never be driving. Often, they have lost their licences, but continue to drive. All the laws in the world won’t stop them.
All that the rest of us can do is be vigilant, report to police anything that looks like a problem situation, and drive as cautiously as we can.