Age is not a factor if you drink and drive

SAINT JOHN – As one elderly city man found out the hard way on Wednesday, even senior citizens can expect to go to jail these days if they choose to drink and drive.

“You’re 73 years old. You should know better,” provincial court Judge Anne Jeffries told Edward Arsenault of Violet Street, before imposing a one-day jail term, a $1,000 fine, a $150 victim fine surcharge and a one-year driving prohibition to the man for impaired driving.

“At 3 o’clock in the afternoon you were out there with all kind of booze in your truck,” she added. “You shouldn’t do that.”

Arsenault, who was then taken off to jail by sheriff’s deputies, had pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle on April 10 with a breathalyzer reading that was nearly twice the legal limit.

Crown prosecutor Kelly Winchester told the court that police started following Arsenault’s truck in the area of the Reversing Falls around 3 p.m. that day after noting some odd things about it – including a window that was broken out. When they caught up to it in the Dever Road/Church Avenue area, she added, they found a six-pack of Alpine beer, a can of Budweiser beer and a partial quart of liquor in the cab.

“They could smell alcohol on (Arsenault’s) breath,” she added.

After failing a roadside screening, the man was taken to the police station for a breathalyzer test. Arsenault blew two readings of 150 milligrams (the legal limit is 80 mg) of alcohol in 100 millitres of blood, Winchester told the court.

Defence counsel David Kelly painted a sympathetic picture of his client, saying he was a retired pensioner of limited means who, on the day in question, had been up the Buffalo Club drinking. Arsenault thought he had sobered up before taking the wheel, Kelly added.

But noting there has been a 34 per cent increase in drinking and driving offences in this area this year alone, Winchester noted her office is continuing to ask the courts to jail all those convicted of such crimes. “My understanding is anyone caught (drinking and driving) after April 1 is looking at jail if they plead guilty or are found guilty,” the judge said. “It may only be for a day.”

Kelly made one last plea in hopes of keeping his client out of jail.

“This guy is going to have a hard enough time working off his fine or paying it. He certainly isn’t a man of means,” he told the judge.

But Jeffries, unmoved, included jail time as part of Arsenault’s sentence.

She gave him until 10 a.m. on Sept. 29 to pay his fine.

Arsenault’s case came before the courts in Saint John just one day after Judge Henrik Tonning laid down the law when it comes to future sentences for drunk drivers in Hampton provincial court.

“If people get caught for (impaired driving) offences after the July 1 weekend, they can expect to go to jail,” Tonning said after sentencing a woman whose breathalyzer readings were three times the legal limit.

Despite imposing hefty fines for first-time offences in his court, Tonning noted the number of offences in Kings County has kept rising to the point where they now account for half of his docket.

In my opinion, I believe this article proves that age is not always a factor when it comes to committing a criminal offence.

Though the man was elderly and a sympathetic picture was painted by his defense council; it not does not take away from the fact that the offence was committed in the first place.

Anybody who is caught drinking and driving will be looking at jail time even if it is for as little as a day.

However, personal circumstances was not considered in the decision to imprison the elderly man for a day, and then punish him with two fines and subject him to a one-year driving prohibition.

Do you think elderly people who end up in this situation should be all faced with the same consequences, or do you think they should be let off lightly because of their age?
Source: www.telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com