Police responded to a report of a motor vehicle accident on the highway near Summerland BC. A vehicle that the client was driving had pulled out of a fruit stand and collided with a vehicle travelling at high speed. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt. When the police arrived they identified the client as the driver of the vehicle that had been leaving the fruit stand and began an impaired driving investigation. They smelled alcohol on the client but did not isolate the smell to her breath. A demand was made for the client to blow into a roadside breathalyzer. She refused to do so and became somewhat combative with the police when they attempted to arrest her for the refusal. She eventually was charged with impaired driving, refusing a breath demand, and resisting arrest. Mr. van der Walle was retained and after reviewing the file carefully, he approached the Crown counsel and let him know that it appeared the client’s constitutional rights had been violated at roadside and that the breath demand was likely unlawful for a number of reasons. To his credit, the Crown agreed and the client had all of her criminal charges dropped by way of stay of proceedings after she pled guilty to the non-criminal ticket offence of driving without due care and attention. The client paid a small fine and did not lose her license for even a day.
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