By SooToday.com Staff
SooToday.com
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

NEWS RELEASES

CITY POLICE

GOVERNMENT OF ONTARIO

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Forty-one-year-old Shane Miller of #9-1712 Ashmun Street, Sault Ste. Marie Michigan was arrested at 12:35 a.m. today at Canada Customs on Huron Street and charged with one count of consuming over the legal limit.

It is alleged that on the 18th of November at approximately 12:35 a.m. the accused was operating a vehicle and was stopped and checked at Canada Customs.

The accused was found to be under the influence of alcohol and registered a fail on the roadside screening device.

He is to appear in bail court this morning.

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McGuinty government helping reduce drinking and driving

To mark the second annual National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims, Ontario is reminding all motorists to never get behind the wheel of a car if they are impaired.

In Ontario, drinking and driving is one of the leading causes of death and is a contributing factor in nearly one quarter of all fatal collisions.

That is why Ontario has some of the toughest impaired driving laws in North America, including immediate 90-day driver's licence suspension and ignition interlock for drivers caught with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 or higher.

These laws got even tougher on May 1, 2009, when Ontario put in place new sanctions targeting drivers with a BAC of 0.05 to 0.08 (the "warn range").

Drivers within this range now face immediate roadside suspensions of three to 30 days.

Quick facts

- This is the second year that the National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims has been recognized in Canada. The year's theme is "Raising awareness of the number of deaths on Canadian roads."

- Statistics show that Ontario's efforts to curb drinking and driving are working. In 2008, Ontario had the lowest impaired driving offence rate in Canada - 43.1 per cent lower than the national average.

- A driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) between 0.05 and 0.08 is about seven times more likely to be in a fatal collision than a driver who hasn't been drinking at all. This risk increases further with higher BAC levels.

- In 2006, drinking and driving was a leading contributory factor in road deaths with 190 fatalities.

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