HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT JAILED

Timothy William Newrick hit light pole while driving drunk in Charlottetown

A Kinkora Regional High School student who hit a light pole while driving drunk was sentenced Monday to 10 days in jail and banned from driving for two years.

Timothy William Newrick, 18, appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown where he pleaded guilty to failing the breathalyzer.

The court heard that on Aug. 14 Newrick was driving on Capital Drive in Charlottetown when he hit a light pole.

Crown attorney Jeff MacDonald said the collision damaged Newrick’s vehicle and removed the pole from its location.

When the police arrived, they found beer cans on the pavement, MacDonald said.

Newrick later provided breathalyzer samples that were about twice the legal limit.

He had a graduated licence at the time.

Before sentencing Newrick, Orr said she has been seeing more young drunk drivers in court recently than she had in the last 10 years.

“What’s the problem these days?”

Orr said young people used to be the responsible ones.

“They were the ones driving around their drunk parents,” she said.

After defence lawyer Yolande Murphy told the court Newrick is in Grade 12 at Kinkora Regional High School, Orr asked if the school had a Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) program.

When she learned it doesn’t, Orr said it might want to start one.

“It might save some of his fellow students from his errors,” Orr said.

Orr also said the legal drinking age in P.E.I. is 19 and there is zero tolerance for alcohol for drivers on a graduated licence.

Along with the jail time, Newrick must pay a $1,000 fine and $300 victim surcharge.

He is banned from driving for two years.