Woman gets jail time for second impaired

A Colchester woman convicted of her second impaired driving charge will spend her weekends in jail for the next few months.

Kaitlyn Suzanne Thompson, 24, was sentenced in Pictou provincial court Thursday after pleading guilty to having an illegal blood alcohol limit.

The court was told Thompson was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in Stellarton when police arrested her March 6, 2015. An officer on patrol noticed she had pulled into a parking lot shortly after he started following her. He stopped to ask her a question about her licence plate and noticed a smell of alcohol in the vehicle when she rolled down the vehicle.

A man in the passenger’s seat told the officer the smell was coming from him and Thompson was giving him a drive but the officer noted Thompson’s eyes were glassy and she was fumbling with the paperwork.

She failed a roadside demand breath test and later recorded a blood alcohol reading that was over the legal limit. She has a previous impaired driving conviction from 2011.

“Two (convictions) in five years is extremely unacceptable and I am sorry,” said Thompson.

Judge Del Atwood allowed Thompson to serve a 30-day jail sentence intermittently that will allow her to keep her job. She was also placed on nine months probation and is prohibited from driving a vehicle for two years. She must pay a $200 in victim surcharge fines.

“It’s an unhappy sort of wakeup call, but if it happens again it could be worse because it goes up to a 120 days and it can’t be served intermittently,” the judge said.