Wrong-way drunk driver in North Van handed 90-day ban

A drunk driver in North Vancouver narrowly avoided zooming on to the highway in the wrong direction Friday (Sept. 30) night.

North Vancouver RCMP officers were driving on Mount Seymour Parkway around 10:20 p.m., approaching Lillooet Road, when they saw the driver of a Ford Fiesta make a left-hand turn and head the wrong way on to a Highway 1 off-ramp.

Other vehicles on the off-ramp had to quickly swerve out of the way to avoid a collision, said Const. Mansoor Sahak, spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP.

Fortunately, officers were able to act quickly and pull over the driver before that person made it on to the highway, where he would have met oncoming lanes of traffic.

The driver, a man in his 40s from New Westminster, failed two roadside screening tests. He was handed a 90-day driving ban and his car was impounded for 30 days.

The incident comes just 10 days after a motorhome was driven the wrong way down the Upper Levels highway in West Vancouver, resulting in a multi-vehicle crash between the 22^nd Street and Cypress Bowl Road exits that sent six people to hospital, seriously injuring two of them.

That crash is still under investigation.

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