A call through the Report Impaired Drivers, or RID, program last Monday resulted in one motorist being charged with impaired driving by the Weyburn Police Service.  

Corporal Ryan Cherniawsky with the WPS said the call came in around 9:00 a.m. after a concerned citizen had called in after seeing a vehicle swerving on Highway 39 towards Weyburn. The caller described the vehicle, and officers were able to locate the vehicle.  

“Before officers were able to stop the particular vehicle they observed it pulling into oncoming lanes,” said Cpl. Cherniawsky. “They were able to get it safely stopped. Based on the officer’s observations, an SFST demand was made – that's standard field sobriety testing. Based on the performance, a further drug recognition expert demand was made, and in that available the driver was found to be impaired and charged accordingly.” 

The driver was charged with driving while impaired by drugs, and received an indefinite license suspension. Their vehicle was also impounded for 30 days.  

Cpl. Cherniawsky noted the WPS does respond to quite a few RID complaints regularly. 

“Some can be explained other ways,” Cherniawsky pointed out. “It’s not always impairment, but we do find a lot of impaired drivers this way.” 

When a person sees what they suspect to be an impaired driver, they can pull over and call 9-1-1 and provide their location, a description of the vehicle they are reporting, and its direction of travel. 

“Describe the vehicle, car, truck, what colour is it, is it a four door, that kind of thing, and describe the driver if possible,” Cherniawsky explained. “That’s not always possible as well as sometimes seeing the license plates. We don’t want anybody going out of their way or putting themselves in dangerous avenues to get these things. It’s just nice to have if it’s seen, and of course, teh driving behaviour, swerving, that kind of thing.” 

Impaired driving is also the focus this month for SGI and law enforcement, particularly when it comes to new drivers. Last year, new drivers accounted for a third of all administrative penalties for impaired driving in Saskatchewan, while only making up nine percent of all licensed drivers. New drivers have a zero tolerance for alcohol or drugs while driving.