Impaired driver stopped on Highway 400 after citizen calls police

York Regional Police made an arrest Tuesday in Vaughan thanks to a citizen notifying police after observing an impaired driver. The arresting officers’ dashcam caught the interaction on video.

The 53-year-old driver, from New Tecumseth, was found to have more than five times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood and was charged with impaired operation and impaired operation with blood-alcohol concentration 80-plus, police said. 

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the citizen called and reported an impaired driver traveling southbound on Highway 400. The caller observed a black Honda CRV being driven with its turn signal flashing and saw it sideswipe concrete barriers at the side of the road multiple times before it pulled into a service station parking lot, according to police.

When police arrived, they found the vehicle parked in the lot with its engine running and the passenger-side door open. The officer observed a driver and front-seat passenger, both asleep and spoke with the driver, who showed signs of being impaired by alcohol.

Police said the driver had the second-highest blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) recorded since York Regional Police began tracking these statistics.

Due to the extremely high level of intoxication, the male was transported to a hospital for assessment where he was seen by a doctor and then released, according to police. His driver’s licence was suspended for 90 days and the vehicle he was driving was impounded for seven days.