Mounties in B.C.’s Fraser Valley investigated an unusual incident last month—and are reminding the public that impaired driving laws don’t only apply to cars and trucks. On July 30, officers spotted someone driving an excavator on a street in Chilliwack, the Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment said in an online statement. “Officers attended and located the driver who was displaying signs of impairment,” authorities said. The operator was handed a 90-day immediate roadside prohibition, which is a driving ban handed out when someone either fails or refuses a breathalyzer. The excavator was also impounded for 30 days, Mounties said. “Planes, trains, and automobiles aren’t the only vehicles bound by impaired driving laws, so are excavators,” the detachment wrote. Under B.C. legislation, a motor vehicle is defined as “a vehicle, not run on rails, that is designed to be self-propelled or propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires.” A vehicle is defined as “a device in, on or by which a person or thing is or may be transported” with the exception of “a device designed to be moved by human power, a device used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks, mobile equipment, a motor assisted cycle or a designated motorized device.” The Criminal Code of Canada makes it an offence to operate a “conveyance” while impaired. That term encompasses motor vehicles but also includes “a vessel, an aircraft or railway equipment.” In one precedent-setting case out of Ontario, a judge ruled that a canoe constitutes a vessel and operating it while impaired is a crime. In the case that brought the issue before the court, an eight-year-old drowned after a canoe flipped over. The ruling was upheld on appeal.
