Cop frustrated after arresting drunk dad en route to school

A Regina police officer is asking what it will take to stop drunk driving after pulling over a drunk driver with his children in the vehicle Wednesday morning.

“I’ve had calls over my career, homicides or other difficult calls, that I’ve responded to but this one — as both a father and a member of the community — to know how scary it was that somebody was that grossly impaired and somehow in their mind thinking that it’s OK to get behind the wheel of a vehicle,” said Const. Curtis Warnar. “It’s frustrating.”

Warnar stopped a driver on the 300 block of Elphinstone Street who blew four times the limit while driving their kids to school.

“Just as I pulled up in front of the vehicle and activated my lights, the driver lurched forward a bit as though the driver didn’t know he was in drive,” Warnar said. “(It) was very difficult for him to follow simple commands like open the door, shut the vehicle off, etc. … smelled heavily of alcohol and even had a (small bottle) of rum in the vehicle.”

Warnar was so frustrated he tweeted a message that said it was one of the few calls that truly bothered him over his nine years in the police service. He ended with the tweet with #pleasestop.

“Impaired driving kills, destroys lives and is 100 per cent preventable,” he wrote in a post that quickly spread across social media. “It needs to stop… what is it going to take?”

He added that he wished he had the answers to stop impaired drivers before it was too late.

“The thing that really hit home for me was how come the young school-aged kids knew what Dad was doing is wrong,” he said. “But in Dad’s mind, he made his decision and was OK with it because he didn’t decide to stop until the kids raised enough of a stink and it was time to pull over.”

Warnar also gave a huge thank you to the witness who called in the impaired driver. Warner said they prevented a potentially fatal situation.

“A lot of people when they see a conflict, they walk the other way, they don’t want to be a part of it,” Warnar said. The witness that called (on Wednesday) obviously recognized there was an issue and made that call to 911 so if it wasn’t for that witness who knows what could have happened.”

The post on the Regina Police Service Facebook page was shared more than 1,400 times in less than 24 hours.

Thought I would give everyone a little insight on a Impaired Driver we arrested this morning. @reginapolice #pleasestop pic.twitter.com/HlrSfwVORT

— Cst. Warnar (@RPSTrafficUnit) September 27, 2017