Drunk driving (Photo 188252969 © Golib Tolibov | Dreamstime.com)

By Kevin Rothwell

Changed habits

COVID leads to more daytime impaired driving

Feb 12, 2021 | 5:15 AM

Vernon North Okanagan RCMP Supt. Shawna Baher has been making the rounds of local municipal partners this week detailing what the crime situation looked like in 2020.

On Monday, she told Vernon council, that most parts of the province have see an uptick in impaired driving which is consistent with increased alcohol and drug consumption due to COVID-19.

It’s widely acknowledged that COVID isolation combined with rule changes for bars and restaurants has changed habits. Under public health orders B.C. bars, pubs and restaurants have to stop liquor sales at 10 p.m.

“We certainly aren’t seeing the late night impaired driving that we did pre-COVID,” Baher told the Electoral Area Advisory Committee (EAAC) Thursday (Feb. 11).

Early into the pandemic, a poll released in June 2020 by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction reported about 20 per cent of Canadians who drink alcohol, and had been staying at home more due to the pandemic, said they have been drinking alcohol once a day.

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Beer, wine and liquor sales all increased dramatically in 2020, according to the the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch. People were buying in larger volumes with box wine, large spirit bottles and flats and cases of beer leading the trend.

To accomodate social distancing, booze vendors were allowed to open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“We saw a lot of people going to the liquor store in the morning, still inebriated from the night before,” Bahar said. ” People had a higher need for alcohol and were out in the morning to resupply.”

On Feb. 3, 2021 RCMP in Vernon sent out a news release about an uninsured driver with a learners license who failed a roadside breath test.