'Certainly a first I've seen': Alleged impaired driver stopped by excavator

Queens District RCMP responded to a possible impaired driving call Thursday and were met with an unusual sight. An excavator driver sandwiched a car between his machine and its bucket, waiting for the police to arrive.

'Different but effective'

Sgt. Leanne Butler, the operations NCO with Queens District RCMP, called it "unconventional".

She said RCMP received the 911 call at 2:30 p.m. indicating the construction worker had stopped the driver and was holding his vehicle until they got there. 

"It's certainly a first that I've seen that. The officers responding probably haven't seen something like that before either. It was a different way, but it was effective."

Butler said the driver stopped near Highway 15 in Brackley, P.E.I. to apparently confront the excavator operator about his work. It was then that the excavator driver suspected intoxication.

3 times over legal limit

According to a news release, when the RCMP arrived the man was in a different vehicle.

The 50-year old man from Brackley Beach was taken back to the RCMP's office and police said he was found to be three times over the legal limit.

Butler said this isn't something the RCMP advises, but in this case it was done safely and no one was injured.

Court date early next year

"Even though we don't really encourage people to get totally involved in a citizen type arrest or anything like that, we encourage them to call us, in this case, it had a good outcome that we were able to get the impaired driver off the road."

"It's a citizen of P.E.I. that was concerned for the safety of others and they were able in this case to help prevent perhaps a tragedy from happening."

Butler said the driver will have a court date in early 2017 to face a charge of impaired driving. 

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