News release

Festive tractor-trailer driver is pulled off the road after Mandatory Alcohol Screening

December 9, 2025 - Fruitvale, British Columbia
From: BC Highway Patrol

Content

Mandatory Alcohol Screening (MAS) can happen to any driver, any time, and it has cost a professional driver the use of his truck and his driver’s license after an unusual stop in Fruitvale, BC.

On December 4, 2025, at 9:00 a.m., BC Highway Patrol pulled over an orange Peterbilt tractor-trailer with two loaded flat-deck trailers on Highway 3B. Police radar recorded the truck doing 75 km/h in a 60 zone, and when the truck was pulled over, the driver had lit a candle in the cab.

“It’s possible that the driver is very fond of Christmas candles. It’s also possible that he was trying to mask the odour of liquor,” says Corporal Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol. “In this case, the officer gave the driver a Mandatory Alcohol Screening breath demand, so there was no need to form suspicion that the driver had been drinking.”

The 52-year-old Abbottsford man who was driving blew a “Warn.” That showed the driver was above the legal limit and led to the following consequences:

• A 3-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition of the driver’s license,
• A 3-day vehicle impound for the vehicle (owned by a trucking company in Agassiz),
• A ticket for speeding against a highway sign, section 146(3) of the BC Motor Vehicle Act ($138),
• A ticket for having open liquor in a vehicle, section 76(2) of the Liquor Control and Licensing Act ($230).

MAS is a federal law that was passed in 2018 and allows police to check any driver for alcohol consumption. MAS is one of the important tools used during the annual Winter Impaired Driving Campaign that is on for the whole month of December. 

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