A man found drunk and asleep in a van in the middle of a Burnaby intersection has lost an appeal to have his 90-day driving suspension overturned.
At about 7 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2018, Burnaby RCMP responded to reports of a male driver “unconscious” inside a red Dodge Caravan “parked in the middle of the intersection” on Elwell Street and Strathmore Avenue in the Edmonds area, according to court documents.
The responding officer reported that she found Dan Shallow sleeping upright in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition.
When she woke him, she said Shallow appeared “confused” and was “not sure which city he was in or how he got there.”
After being cleared medically by paramedics, he failed a breathalyzer test and was taken to the detachment, where he failed two more tests, registering results of .179 and .169.
He was then issued a 90-day driving suspension, upheld by an adjudicator a couple weeks later.
Shallow appealed the decision in B.C. Supreme Court, however, arguing he had not been in “care or control” of the van when the officer came upon him because the van’s battery was dead.
He said he had been at a funeral the night before and “did not feel impaired” when he left, believing he was “safe to drive,” according to court documents.
He said the van broke down in the middle of the intersection and wouldn’t turn over. He said his phone was also dead, and he couldn’t call for help, so he placed his keys on the passenger seat and went to sleep until the officer woke him.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Riley, however, upheld the suspension, saying it had not been unreasonable for the adjudicator to rule Shallow presented a “realistic risk of danger to public safety” despite his van being inoperable.
The adjudicator had found Shallow might have gotten a jump-start and then decided to drive home while still drunk or tried to move the van from the intersection while he was still drunk – either way presenting a risk to public safety.
Riley ruled that conclusion was reasonable and dismissed Shallow’s appeal.
