Police say candle couldn’t hide liquor odor in B.C. truck

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Police in B.C. nabbed a truck driver who had been drinking and tried to pull a fast one by lighting a candle in the cab to mask the smell of liquor.

Mandatory alcohol screening cost the driver use of the truck and his driver’s license after an unusual stop in Fruitvale, B.C.

On Dec. 4, at 9 a.m., B.C. Highway Patrol pulled over an orange Peterbilt tractor-trailer with two loaded flatdeck trailers on Highway 3B, according to a news release. Police radar recorded the truck doing 75 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, and when the truck was pulled over, the driver had lit a candle in the cab.

Picture of a police vehicle behind a tractor trailer
(Photo: B.C. RCMP)

“It’s possible that the driver is very fond of Christmas candles. It’s also possible that he was trying to mask the odor of liquor,” Corporal Michael McLaughlin with B.C. Highway Patrol said in a release. “In this case, the officer gave the driver a mandatory alcohol screening breath demand, so there was no need to form suspicion that the driver had been drinking.”

The 52-year-old Abbotsford man who was driving blew a “warn.”

That showed the driver was above the legal limit and led to a three-day immediate roadside prohibition of the driver’s license, a three-day vehicle impound for the vehicle (owned by a trucking company in Agassiz, B.C.), a ticket for speeding against a highway sign under section 146(3) of the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act for $138, and a ticket for having open liquor in a vehicle under section 76(2) of the Liquor Control and Licensing Act for $230.

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  • He should also have his commercial license revoked. He obviously should know the consequences of liquor and the damage a super b can cause. A higher standard needs to be enforced.

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