New Drinking & Driving Law: Effective May 1, 2009

New Drinking & Driving Law: Punishing you before you break the law
3-day licence suspension, $150 fine for blood alcohol level between .05 and .08

Currently, you have to reach .08 on a breathalyzer to get a 12 hour license suspension with no monetary fine or administrative fee. Apparently, Ontario cannot reduce the blood alcohol threshold to .05 or zero tolerance ("probably with good reason" Brian Ducharme speaking this morning on AM 800 CKLW), so this is a way around it.

"Police Chief Cory McMullan said the new law will keep streets safer and should encourage drivers to think before they have a drink. The changes allow police across the province to take motorists off the road who are a threat to public safety, she said.

“It used to be when we did the warning it was a 12-hour license suspension and they came back the next day to get their licence and, really, other than the inconvenience of that night, there was no real consequence,” McMullan said.

The chief added anyone who repeats and registers between .05 and .08 within five years of their first warning will lose their licence for seven days and be required to attend a driver training program. A third warning means the driver will lose their licence for 30 days, go through remedial driver training and will also have the interlock ignition requirement for six months."
The Intelligencer

These suspensions will be on your permanent driver abstract, will affect your insurance for 3 to 5 years, and can't be disputed. I'm in complete favour of zero blood alcohol levels for drivers but something seems terribly wrong with a law that punishes you BEFORE you break the law.

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