A brief, friendly conversation with an Owen Sound police officer led to a man alleged to have twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system being arrested for impaired driving.
The officer was on foot patrol in the downtown River District shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday when he came across a man and woman also out walking. The officer had a friendly chat with the pair, during which time he determined they had been drinking. However, with no immediate concerns, the officer parted ways with the couple.
Roughly half an hour later, the officer spotted the same two people inside a moving vehicle with the man behind the wheel. The vehicle was quickly pulled over and the driver asked to provide a breath sample into a roadside screening device. The driver is alleged to have failed and was taken back to police headquarters to give additional breath samples, which registered 160mg and 160mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, according to police. That is twice the legal limit of alcohol allowed to be in a driver's system.
A 30-year-old Aurora man is charged with impaired driving, having over 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, and failure to display two licence plates on a motor vehicle. The man's licence has also been suspended for 30 days and his vehicle impounded for seven days.
He is scheduled to appear in Owen Sound court in relation to the charges on September 19.
