Drunk driver wrecked my truck tonight - pics
I consider myself to be quite defensive when it comes to driving, always watching out, looking at other vehicles, preparing for any bonehead thing they may do.... But you know, sometimes some clown...
Forum Discussion
Things are a lot different from the US to Canada.
In BC we have the government monopoly ICBC. (Insurance Corp of BC). It isn't optional - you have to buy it from them, like it or not. The only thing we can buy from others is the extended coverage such as collision, comprehensive and so on. But the basic has to come from ICBC.
We treat DUI's different here too. In BC it is referred to as Impaired Driving. Means the same thing. But here they are very intolerant of it. It is very hard to get off an impaired charge. Habits of how people handle drunk driving charges are quite different here.
At first they were not even going to have the police attend, another habit of the local cops here. Not faulting them but they are grossly understaffed and super busy. If nobody is hurt and there are no real issues they tell people to swap info, call a towtruck and be on your way. Call ICBC and let them sort it out. If we report it they will assign a file number over the phone. End of story.
I was insistent with the fire dept people who attended that the RCMP attend, as the guy had been drinking. Fire dept agreed with me and they smelled the booze too. Took at least 20 minutes but cops finally showed up.
The first car that left was the guy who the Mazda spun into after I hit it. Then they finished with me, OK'd me to drive my truck away rather than having it towed like they wanted to.
So when I left, they had another police officer there, car parked close to the drunks car, trunk lid open and they were dealing with him. I can only assume they were having him blow on the spot, and I also assume that he was charged with unsafe left turn and alcohol charges.
In a case like this, they don't haul them off to already overcrowded jails, they have them blow on the spot, or take them in for the breathalyzer test.
So, I really don't know what happened to him. I called him twice today to see if he was OK, but he didn't answer his phone. He took quite an impact from the front of my truck.
Police here have little form cards they hand out to all parties involved. We fill them out with name, vehicle info, drivers license, phone numbers and such and each of these is given to the other drivers.
I had 2 witnesses come forward at the scene and give me their contact info. I am grateful for that. I passed the info to the cops, and they told me they likely won't need it, as it is pretty clear what happened.
In BC we have the government monopoly ICBC. (Insurance Corp of BC). It isn't optional - you have to buy it from them, like it or not. The only thing we can buy from others is the extended coverage such as collision, comprehensive and so on. But the basic has to come from ICBC.
We treat DUI's different here too. In BC it is referred to as Impaired Driving. Means the same thing. But here they are very intolerant of it. It is very hard to get off an impaired charge. Habits of how people handle drunk driving charges are quite different here.
At first they were not even going to have the police attend, another habit of the local cops here. Not faulting them but they are grossly understaffed and super busy. If nobody is hurt and there are no real issues they tell people to swap info, call a towtruck and be on your way. Call ICBC and let them sort it out. If we report it they will assign a file number over the phone. End of story.
I was insistent with the fire dept people who attended that the RCMP attend, as the guy had been drinking. Fire dept agreed with me and they smelled the booze too. Took at least 20 minutes but cops finally showed up.
The first car that left was the guy who the Mazda spun into after I hit it. Then they finished with me, OK'd me to drive my truck away rather than having it towed like they wanted to.
So when I left, they had another police officer there, car parked close to the drunks car, trunk lid open and they were dealing with him. I can only assume they were having him blow on the spot, and I also assume that he was charged with unsafe left turn and alcohol charges.
In a case like this, they don't haul them off to already overcrowded jails, they have them blow on the spot, or take them in for the breathalyzer test.
So, I really don't know what happened to him. I called him twice today to see if he was OK, but he didn't answer his phone. He took quite an impact from the front of my truck.
Police here have little form cards they hand out to all parties involved. We fill them out with name, vehicle info, drivers license, phone numbers and such and each of these is given to the other drivers.
I had 2 witnesses come forward at the scene and give me their contact info. I am grateful for that. I passed the info to the cops, and they told me they likely won't need it, as it is pretty clear what happened.
