Man arrested for impaired driving with grandchild in passenger seat

A 55-year-old Regina man whose driver’s licence allegedly expired 15 years ago is facing a charge of driving while impaired — with his eight-year-old grandchild in the passenger seat.

In a media release Tuesday, the Saskatchewan RCMP said an officer with the Roving Traffic Unit stopped a vehicle heading east on the Trans-Canada Highway near Swift Current on Thursday morning.

The Mounties said when the man was asked for his licence, he produced a Saskatchewan photo identification card and said he didn’t have a driver’s licence. The officer checked with SGI and found the man’s licence had expired in 2005.

The officer also suspected the man had been drinking, so he was given an Approved Screening Device demand. When that produced a fail reading, the man was arrested.

(RCMP/Submitted)

He subsequently provided breath samples that were 1.5 times over the legal limit.

The driver was charged with impaired operation of a conveyance, operating a conveyance over .08, driving without a valid driver’s licence and consuming beverage alcohol in a motor vehicle.

The man’s grandchild was taken to the Swift Current Municipal RCMP detachment.

“The child coloured pictures and ate lunch with the Saskatchewan Highway Patrol officers until the child’s mother arrived a few hours later and picked up her child,” the RCMP release said.

The man is to appear in court in Swift Current Provincial Court in September.