Winnipeg police introduce mandatory breath samples at checkstops

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This article was published 03/12/2024 (333 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drivers pulled over at checkstops in Winnipeg this month will be required to give a breath sample.

The mandatory alcohol screening, announced by Winnipeg police Tuesday, is a change from previous years, when a test was at an officer’s discretion.

The move brings city police on par with their RCMP counterparts, which have required samples from every driver pulled over at a holiday checkstop since legislation first allowed it in 2018.

“The test is simple to provide, only take a few seconds and, assuming you pass, you’ll be on your way,” Winnipeg Police Service Patrol Sgt. Stephane Fontaine said as RCMP and city police jointly launched the program, which runs throughout December.

The annual program began days after a grim reminder of why it’s still needed.

RCMP said Tuesday that a Peguis First Nation woman was killed Nov. 29 in a head-on collision with an alleged impaired driver.

The daughter of 69-year-old Edie McPherson, who was pronounced dead at the scene six kilometres south of Fisher Branch, is pleading with the public to think twice before they get behind the wheel.

“Quit stealing people’s loved ones,” Samantha McPherson said Tuesday. “It’s not fair.”

“Get a driver. Call a cab. Stay where you are. If you’re at a hotel, get a room. Just don’t drive.”

RCMP said the SUV McPherson was driving collided with a southbound pickup truck on Highway 17 just south of Fisher Branch, about 150 kilometres north of Winnipeg, around 7 p.m.

McPherson’s 71-year-old best friend, Bev, who was in the passenger seat, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The two had been out shopping for the day and were heading back to Peguis at the time of the collision.

A 60-year-old man from Gardenton has been charged with impaired driving causing death. He was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and eventually released for a future court date.

Bev was still in hospital Tuesday, dealing with several broken bones and the grief of losing a loved one.

“I just talked to her today … she’s just traumatized,” McPherson said. “She said that sound just plays over and over again — the impact — in her head.”

McPherson had jumped in her vehicle and rushed to the scene. She was told then that her mother had died.

“She was a church-going lady. We know that she is going to go to heaven,” McPherson said. “But she had a really healthy balance of her cultural ways. She was loved by many and worked for many years in Peguis as a medical travel coordinator.”

A sacred fire has burned in Peguis for the last three days, a First Nations tradition that helps usher the deceased back to the Creator. Samantha McPherson’s three daughters, meanwhile, each cut off a braid of their hair, a tradition when mourning the death of a close family member.

McPherson’s death is the 70th this year on roads and highways outside of Winnipeg, RCMP said.

Sgt. Mark Hume from RCMP Traffic Services said he hopes that number stays where it is.

“We’ve seen our numbers increase by 50 to 100 per cent in terms of apprehensions,” Hume said, noting the effectiveness of mandatory testing. “We’re stopping an incredible number of people who we otherwise never would have thought were impaired.”

Hume said the country sees around 400 to 450 people a year killed in impaired driving-related incidents.

“If you look at 13 years our forces were in Afghanistan, we lost 158 people in combat,” Hume said. “You consider we’re losing double to triple that in a single year to a preventative thing such as impaired driving. That’s our goal. To try and reduce that this year.”

In 2023, the WPS checked 4,032 cars and administered 2,050 tests.

“As we’ve discovered, a person who is impaired becomes quite clever and is difficult to detect,” Fontaine said. “By allowing us to test every driver, we ensure that we catch everyone who is trying to evade and ultimately drive while impaired.”

Police also have the option to screen for drugs, including cannabis and cocaine, but those tests are not mandatory.

“Our message is clear and simple: if you are under the influence of cannabis or alcohol, don’t drive,” Fontaine said. “There’s simply no excuse for driving under the influence.”

WPS laid 13 charges for impaired driving and 11 more for failing or refusing to comply with a request for a breath sample during the checkstop campaign last year.

City police suspended 62 drivers roadside for alcohol infractions and five more for drug-related violations.

RCMP, meanwhile, checked 5,223 vehicles and laid 46 alcohol charges, two drug charges and four failure or refusal to comply charges. Another 88 people were suspended roadside for alcohol and 12 more for drug infringements.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca