The Sicamous RCMP ended 2024 with a jump in impaired drivers and a successful test run coordinating with the Bruhn Bridge crews during highway closures.
In a quarterly report at the Jan. 22 council meeting, Sgt. Murray McNeil provided the key points of what the detachment encountered, with impaired driving being the most notable.
"For impaired driving there's a significant, very significant, increase in that," he said of the 30 drivers taken off the road from October to December, which is a huge jump from fiver the previous year and the nine in 2022.
He added they鈥檝e been doing more road checks and are noticing more impaired drivers for cannabis 鈥渨hich we weren鈥檛 seeing before,鈥� though the penalties are the same for both drugs and alcohol.
McNeil also reported a collision of note on Nov. 29 when an SUV crossed the centre line and hit a pickup truck head on just north of Swansea Point on Highway 97A.
鈥淭hat was our first major collision during the bridge construction, so we had Highway 1 closed at that time and, as a result of that collision, we had to have Highway 97A closed," McNeil said. "So in a situation like that, I make a phone call to the bridge supervisor, let them know that we have an incident on 97A and that they have to start opening Highway 1... so that was our first test with that.鈥�
He added that crews aren't able to open the road instantaneously as they have to remove rocks and debris, so it took about half an hour and, in the end, both highways were reopened at about the same time.
Altogeher, the Sicamous detachment had 450 calls for service during that quarter, which is an increase from 373 the previous year. McNeil also noted this month has been busier than normal and they鈥檝e seen a spike in mental health calls which 鈥渢his time of year is not uncommon.鈥�
