Alleged impaired teen driver plows through entrance gate at Pittock Conservation Area

Driver plows through entrance gate at Pittock Conservation Area in Woodstock, Ont., on Sunday, May 18, 2025. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

Cleanup is underway after a driver drove into the entrance gate to Pittock Conservation Area in Woodstock, Ont.

“I was totally shocked as I’d never seen something like that happen out of one of our three conservation area,” says Damian Schofield, coordinator of conservation areas with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA).

“I’m just glad, though hat we don’t staff at that time of day and that no one was injured”.

Woodstock police say a 17-year-old male driver hit the building around 3 a.m. on Sunday.

Upon arrival, police say they located the driver and formed the opinion that he was impaired by alcohol. Officers say open alcohol was also found inside the vehicle.

The driver was arrested and transported to the police station, where breath samples were obtained.

Tire tracks can be seen from the curve in the road leading to the building which is in ruins.

Throughout the morning, onlookers were arriving to take photos, while the entrance remained open.

UTRCA park staff were cleaning debris from the grass next to the building Sunday morning and they are trying to determine their next steps while dealing with police.

“There will be some work to get that cleaned up and as far as our day operations go for Pittock, that won’t change anything because we actually don’t charge a day fee for visitors to come and use the day use,” says Schofield.

“With one lane is open they can still access the property. For our campground operation, what we will be doing for the foreseeable future anyways, is taking the store that we have that’s down in the middle of our campground, and we’ll be using that kind of as a combination, park office and store location where our patrons will be able to still come in and pay for their camping fees and register. Those things would have been happening up at the front gate”.

Police say the teen has been charged with:

• Impaired Operation of a Motor Vehicle
• Operation While Having Over 80 mg of Alcohol per 100 ml of Blood

As the individual is a youth, his identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.