Here’s a roundup of crime news from around Metro Vancouver and B.C. on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025
Charges have been laid in a crash 15 months ago in Delta that left a passenger quadriplegic and another with serious vertebral and pelvic fractures.
Two passengers in the back seat were trapped in the car and had to be extracted by Delta firefighters. Police say the driver and a passenger in the front fled before first responders arrived.
“After extensive investigation, charges related to the collision were approved in December 2024,” said Delta police in an update this week.
Prosecutors have charged Surrey resident Jushan Virk, 29, with two counts of failing to remain at the scene of a crash causing bodily harm, two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm, and two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08.
Virk has been released until his next court appearance.
Impaired driver caught every three hours in December
An impaired driving blitz last month led to one driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol being taken off the road every three hours, says the B.C. RCMP highway patrol.
The campaign “clearly shows that education is not enough for people who choose to drive while impaired,” said Supt. Mike Coyle, the acting officer in charge of the traffic unit. “Nobody is surprised when they fail a roadside screening device and their vehicle is towed.”
Here are the December 2024 statistics for prohibitions in the patrol’s five B.C. regions:
• North (100 Mile House and north, excluding Clearwater): 52 prohibitions
• Southeast Central (including Vernon, Kelowna, Kamloops and Clearwater): 81 prohibitions
• Lower Mainland (including Pemberton to Hope): 45 prohibitions
• Southeast Kootenay (including Revelstoke, Salmon Arm, Grand Forks, east to Alberta): 36 prohibitions
• Vancouver Island: 53 prohibitions
Those stats don’t reveal the full extent of the problem, said Coyle, because some regions — especially the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island — have large municipal and RCMP traffic units that aren’t included in highway patrol data.
December’s campaign was part of national impaired driving prevention month and involved beefed-up enforcement through check stops and patrols. It’s the second busiest time of year after the summer campaign from June to August.