By Richard Leitner, News Staff
A driver who rolled his pickup truck after doing a U-turn near a RIDE lane at the Queenston traffic circle capped off a busy weekend for drunk-driving arrests in Hamilton – 15 in all, eight of them on the Mountain.
“I’m not going to say it’s because of the Super Bowl because they were all throughout the weekend, but it is definitely a higher number than normal,” Sgt. Terri-Lynn Collings said. “Some people just aren’t getting the message.”
She said officers were conducting RIDE checks at the Queenston circle at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday when they heard the sound of a collision and found a Toyota pickup truck lying on its roof a short distance to the east.
The 37-year-old driver blew nearly two times the legal blood-alcohol limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in breath tests.
A police search of his truck also found some cocaine and he faces charges of impaired driving, driving over 80, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime under $5,000 and breach of a recognizance.
Other arrests saw motorists hit a parked SUV and utility pole, go the wrong way down a one-way street and, in the case of a 40-year-old Mountain driver, ignore several police efforts to pull her over.
The latter driver had been heading south on Upper Sherman Avenue from Limeridge Road at about 3 a.m. on Sunday and was arrested when her Kia finally pulled into a driveway on Jonathan Court near Rymal Road.
She blew nearly three times the limit and is charged with impaired driving and driving over 80.
Others charged included:
- a 54-year-old woman pulled over at 7:30 p.m. Saturday after police received reports of a Mazda driving erratically down the Claremont Access;
- a 40 year-old woman whose Dodge Neon was pulled over on Upper James Street near Brucedale Avenue around 2 a.m. on Monday;
- a 30-year-old man whose speeding Chevrolet Tracker was pulled over on Queensdale Avenue East at 2:30 a.m. Sunday;
- a 40-year-old man whose GMC Jimmy was pulled over on Garth Street at 1 a.m. Sunday;
- a 50-year-old man whose black Mercedes was pulled over on Upper James near Mohawk Road at 2 a.m. on Saturday after police received reports of an impaired driver;
- a 27-year-old man also charged with marijuana possession after his car was pulled over on Fennell Avenue at East 17th Street at 2 a.m. on Saturday;
- a 62-year-old man who refused to provide a breath sample after being pulled over near Mohawk and Magnolia Drive at 8 p.m. on Friday;
- a 24-year-old man held by witnesses after he tried to flee a collision at the corner of Queen Street and King Street West at 1 a.m. on Saturday;
- a 36-year-old man arrested at a nearby home after leaving his car behind after it hit a utility pole on Birmingham Street in the north end at 4 a.m. on Saturday;
- a 32-year-old man who blew nearly three times the limit after his car hit a parked SUV by Cochrane and Lawrence roads at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
