Ontario woman charged with impaired driving after crashing car into an LCBO

Drinking and driving simply don't mix, as police officers often say in commercials.

It's advice that rings true both in the straightforward sense as well as the abstract: Getting behind the wheel while intoxicated is dangerous and illegal, but so too is physically driving an automobile into a liquor store.

A motorist in Thunder Bay, Ontario, managed to do both of these things on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in her subsequent arrest and multiple criminal charges.

The Thunder Bay Police Service reports that officers were dispatched to an LCBO location at 969 Fort William Road on September 22 just before 1:20 p.m. "following reports of a motor vehicle collision that had just occurred."

Upon arrival, they found that a 60-year-old woman had crashed her vehicle into the side of the liquor store. No injuries were reported.

A 60-year-old motorist who collided with a liquor store Wednesday afternoon was found to be four times above the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration. #tbay

Media Release: https://t.co/SEjmvPZGX1

— Thunder Bay Police (@tbpsmedia) September 23, 2021

"When officers approached the motorist, they observed several signs of impairment," reads a release issued by the police department on Thursday. "The driver was subsequently arrested and transported to the TBPS headquarters."

When tested, they found that the woman had a blood alcohol concentration of 320 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood — four times above the legal limit for blood alcohol concentration.

The woman, said to be a resident of Thunder Bay, was charged with Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle, Operation of a Motor Vehicle While Impaired and Operation of a Motor Vehicle While Impaired Blood Alcohol Concentration.

She has since been released and is scheduled to appear in court at a later date.

Ironic as the circumstances of this particular crash may be, the incident once again shines a light on a persistent problem in this and other provinces: Earlier this year, Ontario Provincial Police reported that DIU charges had increased by 20 per cent since the start of the pandemic.