A woman was arrested in a Newmarket neighbourhood for impaired driving and also child endangerment as she had two children in the car with her.
In a video shared on York Regional Police's social media pages, the dispatcher said they received a call on March 17 for a possible impaired driver in a blue Ford Focus in the area of Lewis Drive and Park Avenue, which is north of Eagle Street and east of Yonge Street.
A citizen had reported to police that a woman was seen stumbling around, then getting in the vehicle with a drink in her hand, though they weren't sure if it was alcohol.
Officers pulled over the car and explained to the driver that they received a report about someone driving dangerously in a car matching hers, which she tried to claim was a different vehicle she had seen in the area. However, when the officer said the description of the driver was a woman with wavy blonde hair, the driver said, "Oh, that's me."
She said she hadn't had any alcoholic beverages but got police required her to get out of the vehicle to provide a breath sample. Meanwhile, other officers removed two children from the car.
The bottle of vodka wasn't the most alarming thing we found in this woman's car.
— York Regional Police (@YRP) March 18, 2022
The two kids were.
Our thanks go to a 9-1-1 caller, who may have saved their lives. After her arrest yesterday, the driver blew more than three times the legal limit. #SafeRoadsYourCall pic.twitter.com/LkF9pmpr0e
The breathalyzer required multiple attempts as the woman appeared to not blow on it long enough and it was only after the officer warned that she could be charged with refusal to provide a breath sample that she was able to complete the test, which was three times the legal limit, according to police.
As an officer informed the woman she was being arrested for impaired driving, she responded, "I don't know why this even happened." At the same time another officer who was searching the vehicle found a bottle of vodka.
"That might have something to do with it," one officer said, pointing to the bottle. "There's a bottle of vodka that he just found in your vehicle."
The woman said the bottle was from the other day and that she had wondered where it went.
Along with the impaired driving charge, the woman was charged with endangering two children under six who were in the backseat of the car.
