Sun-Tribune file photo
York Regional Police conduct a RIDE spotcheck. Police say a slate of crashes in which a driver has gone the wrong way on a road can be attributed to drunk driving.
Regional News
October 09, 2008 09:22 PM
Markham man charged in weekend crash on Hwy. 403
Joe Fantauzzi
A spate of crashes involving vehicles travelling into oncoming traffic over the past weeks — including one that left a York Region resident dead and another facing charges — have one factor in common, police say.
“Every one of them involved alcohol,” Ontario Provincial Police acting Sgt. David Woodford said.
“Alcohol plays games with your brain.”
The most recent high-profile incident involving a wrong-way crash took place Sunday morning.
At about 3:10 a.m., a Toyota Camry headed east in the westbound lanes of Hwy. 403 slammed head-on into a Volvo AWD at Hurontario Street in Mississauga, OPP said.
Six people in the Volvo, all residents of Hamilton, were hospitalized and later discharged.
The Camry’s driver, who police identified as a Markham man, was not hurt in the crash and is charged with impaired driving, among other offences.
Sept. 12, a crash on Hwy. 403 killed two men — Pablo Guzman, 48, of Woodbridge and Herminio Del Valle, 45, of North York. The crash was linked to alcohol, police say. At about 4:40 a.m., a Ford F250 pick-up truck headed east in the westbound lanes of Hwy. 403 slammed head-on into a Toyota Corolla near Eglinton Avenue in Mississauga, according to OPP.
The crash took place while OPP officers were rushing to respond to calls from drivers about a pick-up truck travelling the wrong way on the highway, according to a statement issued by Commissioner Julian Fantino.
The man driving the pick-up was taken to Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga with minor injuries.
A 25-year-old Burlington man was charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death, two counts of impaired driving causing death and two counts of driving with more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in the blood causing an accident with a fatality.
A scan of the York Regional Police media major reports from Saturday, Sunday and Monday show several impaired driving-related charges — albeit not specifically identified as being connected to wrong-way driving — were laid across the region against both men and women ranging in age between 22 and 60.
While control-access highway collisions are not a major issue for York police, traffic bureau acting Staff Sgt. Brad Bulmer said motorists driving all over the road, including into oncoming lanes, is a “very real characteristic of impaired driving.”
Earlier this year, Audrey Smocka, 57, of Georgina was killed after a northbound red Mazda B4000 pickup truck crossed the centre road line of Woodbine Avenue and slammed into her southbound blue Hyundai Tucson SUV near Boag Road in East Gwillimbury, York police said.
A 47-year-old Georgina man is charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and driving with more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in the blood.
News of the charges against the Markham man laid in connection with Sunday’s Mississauga crash came on the same day as a release of a report by Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada in which the organization said there have been few gains in developing effective legislation to address impaired driving by Canada’s provinces and territories in the past year.
Ontario, in particular, was tagged in the report as in need of improvement, having made no significant changes to its impaired driving laws in the past 12 months.
Between Sept. 1, 2007 and Aug. 31, 2008, Ontario had not brought into force licence suspension provisions for people who have a blood-alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.08 per cent and had not enacted regulations required to expand the ignition interlock program, according to the MADD Canada report.
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and the Yukon were also listed as needing improvement.
“Frankly, MADD Canada is disappointed with the lack of progress by provinces and territories in this past year,” MADD Canada’s CEO, Andrew Murie, said in a statement.
A 24-year-old Markham man is charged with impaired driving, driving with more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in the blood, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and criminal negligence causing bodily harm in connection with the crash on Hwy. 403 Sunday.