It almost sounds like a dated stand-up routine, and the punchline is almost as bad: two Mounties walk into a bar.
They notice a Jasper local drinking. They probably noticed several, it being close to midnight on May 26, but according to an RCMP press release, they warned this 48-year-old man not to drive later if he's imbibing.
Maybe he didn't hear them correctly, but wouldn't you know it, there he was rolling down Bonhomme Street a few minutes later. Officers had all they needed to demand a breath sample, which the driver failed. Two more breath samples at the detachment later, and he became one of the three men charged with over 80 in the past week in Jasper National Park.
According to Const. Jerome Berube-Bourgeois two days earlier, just before midnight on May 26, police learned of a possible impaired driver on the Icefields Parkway. Within a few minutes a Jasper RCMP member saw the vehicle travelling at 74 km/h on Connaught Drive, where the limit is 50 km/h, and pulled it over. The officer became suspicious and demanded a breath sample. The 42-year-old Spruce Grove man failed the roadside test and was brought to the detachment where he provided two more breath samples. He was charged with over 80.
And on June 1 at about 9 p.m., Jasper RCMP pulled over a vehicle that didn't have valid registration and the member was immediately greeted with the smell of booze on the breath of the 38-year-old Jasper man in the driver's seat. He failed a roadside screening device and after two more breath samples at the detachment, one more impaired operation of a motor vehicle (over 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood) charge.
The driver's licences and vehicles of the accused were seized in each case. All three men are scheduled to appear in Jasper court on July 12.
"Jasper RCMP officers continue to be out in full force every day and every night in an attempt to locate and remove impaired drivers from our roads and ensure safe driving behaviours of all motorists," Berube-Bourgeois said. "The Jasper RCMP also encourages you to call 911 if you suspect a driver is impaired."
