Driver arrested for drug possession
A heavy-truck driver was arrested after his vehicle struck five cars stopped at a red light in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, a crash that puts drug impairment among heavy-vehicle operators back in focus for safety professionals.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) arrested the 39-year-old man early Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the Capitale-Nationale region, Noovo Info reported. Police told the outlet the man was arrested for drug possession and that blood analyses have been requested. He could face impaired driving charges. No charges had been announced.
The collision happened at about 5 a.m. at an intersection on Sainte-Anne Boulevard.
Injured motorist out of danger
All five motorists were alone in their vehicles. The most seriously injured, a 31-year-old man, was taken to hospital. Police initially feared for his life, but the SQ confirmed later Wednesday morning that he was out of danger, Noovo Info reported in an update.
An earlier CTV News report had described him as being in critical condition.
The four other drivers suffered minor injuries. The truck driver, who has not been identified, was not seriously hurt, police told both outlets.
Drug-impaired driving rules
The SQ investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing. Neither report says whether the driver was on duty, who owned the truck or whether it carried a load.
Under section 320.14 of the Criminal Code, it is an offence to operate a conveyance while impaired to any degree by alcohol or a drug, or with a blood drug concentration at or above a prescribed limit. Drug-impaired driving has been a criminal offence in Canada since 1925, and impaired driving is the country's leading criminal cause of death and injury, the federal government says.
Police can demand a blood sample when they believe a driver has committed an offence, according to federal guidance on cannabis and drug-impaired driving. It adds that employers and workers share responsibility for addressing workplace impairment, whatever its cause. Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) has previously reported on how to identify the signs of drug impairment in employees.
Employer duties under the Westray law
Quebec's workplace safety board, the CNESST, has probed earlier highway crashes involving heavy trucks, including a supervisor killed after a road train driver lost control on Autoroute 20.
Section 217.1 of the Criminal Code, added by former Bill C-45 in March 2004, requires anyone who directs how others work to take all reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to workers and any other person, according to the Department of Justice Canada's background on the Westray Law. The law followed the May 9, 1992, explosion at the Westray Mine in Pictou County, N.S., which killed 26 miners.
The amendments raised the maximum fine for an organization convicted of a summary offence to $100,000 from $25,000, with no cap on fines for indictable offences. Unions have pushed for wider use of the provision, including a Nova Scotia union call for wider enforcement of the Westray Bill.
