Drunk driver didn’t stop for cop, court hears
Cameron Paul Taylor, 21, of Mazerolle Settlement, had 2½ times legal limit of booze in his system when detained on suspicion of impaired operation of motor vehicle
A young Mazerolle Settlement man told a judge Tuesday he was still drunk from the night before when the RCMP busted him for impaired driving shortly after 9 a.m. earlier this year.
Cameron Paul Taylor, 21, of Mazerolle Settlement Road, pleaded guilty before Fredericton provincial court Judge Mary Jane Richards on Tuesday to counts of impaired driving and flight from police.
Crown prosecutor Kathleen Jacobs said an RCMP officer was on patrol in the Hanwell area at 9:04 a.m. Feb. 19 when she spotted a vehicle on Route 640 cross the centre line.
“The vehicle suddenly over-corrected back into its lane,” the prosecutor said.
The officer, who’d been travelling in the opposite direction, turned her cruiser around and activated her emergency lights, court heard, but the suspect vehicle was already off in the distance, having accelerated at a high speed in an apparent attempt to get away from the police vehicle.
Jacobs said the officer was able to keep the suspect vehicle in sight and saw it turn into a Hanwell subdivision, and the police vehicle caught up with it.
The suspect vehicle pulled over at that time, the prosecutor said, and the officer approached.
“The driver was looking away from the officer,” Jacobs said, noting the driver was Taylor.W
When he finally turned to face the officer, she said, he exhibited signs of impairment, including glossy eyes, slow movements and an odour of alcohol.
Taylor also had trouble following the officer’s commands, court heard, and he was detained on suspicion of impaired driving.
He was taken to a police station, where breathalyzer tests were administered, Jacobs said, and he blew readings of 210 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
The legal limit is 80 mg.
“They’re very, very high readings,” the prosecutor said, noting they were in the aggravating range as per the provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada.
While Taylor has no prior criminal record, she said, his blood-alcohol level required a heftier fine - a mandatory minimum fine of $2,000.
Jacobs asked the court to impose that fine, plus another $500 for the flight from police.
Furthermore, the impaired-driving requires a one-year driving prohibition, but the prosecutor asked the judge to add another year onto that ban for the flight offence, though that would be a discretionary order.
Defence lawyer Emily Cochrane said her client is a youthful, first-time offender who plans to attend a community college program.
She agreed with the fines the Crown had recommended, but asked the court not to impose the additional driving prohibition.
“This happened at 9 in the morning,” Richards said, noting it looked as though Taylor might have a drinking problem.
“I had been drinking the night before,” the offender told her.
“I had assumed that,” the judge said.
When people drink heavily at night, she said, they often erroneously assume they’re OK to drive even after just a couple of hours of sleep, when it’s clearly not the case.
The judge said Taylor’s driving - weaving across the centre line of a highway - was clearly dangerous.
“It could’ve been much, much worse,” Richards said.
She imposed the requested fines totalling $2,500, plus customary victim-fine surcharges amounting to $750, for an overall total of $3,250.
The judge also prohibited Taylor from driving for a year, and she declined to extend that ban for the flight offence.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.