After seeing a pickup truck driving slowly and swerving across Oil Heritage Road in Dawn-Euphemia Township, a Lambton OPP officer pulled it over and asked the driver where he was going.
Christopher Drysdale said he was heading back home to Sarnia.
“But that was 45 minutes in the opposite direction,” assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Jones said Tuesday in a Sarnia courtroom.
The officer could also smell alcohol on Drysdale’s breath during the traffic stop shortly before 10:30 pm on June 5, so they looked around the Ford F-150.
“(The officer could) see many open and empty cans of Bud Light beer litered throughout the motor vehicle,” Jones said.
Drysdale was arrested that Sunday night and taken to headquarters for testing, which showed he had 130 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrams.
Drysdale, who represented himself, pleaded guilty Tuesday to impaired driving under the Criminal Code and was fined $1,500 and banned from driving for one year. He also pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle with cannabis readily available under the Cannabis Control Act – along with the beer cans, the officer found a baggie of cannabis in the center console – and was fined $125.
Jones pointed out based on evidence heard in court his fine motor skills were affected.
“One can only imagine how that translates to the fine motor functions that are needed to drive a thousand pounds of metal in highways where other people are,” she said.
Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski agreed.
“Your presence on the roadway at that time caused a danger to others as well as to yourself,” she said.
Drysdale did, too.
“It was unacceptable,” he said.
Jones had asked for a $2,000 fine, double the minimum, but the judge opted for $1,500 instead due in part to his financial struggles from losing his licence.
Other charges were withdrawn.