Nanaimo RCMP pull over teacher suspected of impaired driving with students in vehicle

Photo: Times Colonist

Nanaimo RCMP have nabbed an educator suspected of drunk driving while she had four students in the vehicle.

Police said the 43-year-old woman was taking the students to an extracurricular event in Nanaimo when she was pulled over by officers at 11 a.m. Monday at Milton and Fitzwilliam streets.

According to the RCMP, the officer used an alcohol-screening device to determine the driver was “indeed beyond the legal limits of alcohol in her blood to drive a motor vehicle.”

The educator then arranged for other transportation for the students, police said.

She was issued an immediate 90-day roadside suspension and her vehicle was impounded.

“The officer, in this case, did exactly what the people of Nanaimo expect from their law enforcement officers in that he observed a suspected driving offence, investigated the matter fully and took an impaired driver transporting vulnerable youth off the road,” Const. Sherri Wade of the Nanaimo RCMP said in a statement.

“Nanaimo parents can sleep soundly knowing that this officer and many more like him are on the roads 24 hours a day looking for impaired drivers.”

The Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District said the educator was not employed by the district.