Waterloo Region Record

Man caught driving with near-lethal amount of alcohol in blood, police say

- GORDON PAUL REPORTER GORDON PAUL IS A WATERLOO REGION-BASED CRIME REPORTER FOR THE RECORD. EMAIL: GPAUL@THERECORD.COM

A 38-year-old Collingwoo­d man had more than five times the legal limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitre­s of blood while driving

An occasional roundup of unusual incidents reported by the Ontario Provincial Police

We’re thinking he didn’t tell the officer he had just one beer.

Police arrested a motorist with a near-lethal amount of alcohol in his blood. Officers charged the man last Sunday after a two-car crash in Collingwoo­d.

The driver, 38, had more than five times the legal limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitre­s of blood, OPP said.

A Collingwoo­d man was charged with impaired driving and failing to yield to traffic.

Driving with 400 mg of alcohol is almost unheard of. Some people lose consciousn­ess at 300 mg; 400 can kill.

Five years ago, a Kitchener man, 33, was in court for driving with 4.5 times the limit.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen readings this high,” Justice Scott Latimer said at the time, calling them “somewhat terrifying.”

The readings would have been even higher at the time of the crash since breath tests were taken more than two hours later.

The amount of alcohol in his blood put him “very close to death,” defence lawyer Tom Brock said.

The motorist rear-ended a car on Fischer-Hallman Road in Kitchener. Latimer fined him $3,200 and banned him from driving for 18 months.

Drinking, peeing in store

It sounds like a simple rule — don’t pee in a store.

“An employee called police because an individual was urinating in the store,” OPP said. “Police located the suspect and found them with an opened container of alcohol.”

It happened on Wednesday at a mall in Tillsonbur­g, 35 kilometres south of Woodstock.

A 28-year-old resident of Hamilton was charged with mischief and drinking alcohol in an unauthoriz­ed place. Police did not provide the person’s gender “out of respect for their privacy.”

Switcheroo fails

A plan to outfox police failed miserably.

Officers were running a RIDE check in Caledon, north of Brampton. Around 2 a.m., a vehicle entered the area.

Officers saw the driver and passenger switch seats.

“Grounds were formed that both drivers’ ability to operate a motor vehicle was impaired by alcohol and they were subsequent­ly arrested,” OPP said.

A Brampton man, 21, was charged with failing to give a breath sample. The other occupant, 21, of Belleville (police didn’t reveal their gender) was charged with being a novice driver with a blood-alcohol content above zero.

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