RCMP charge tractor driver with impaired driving after near-collision

Kings District RCMP arrested a man for allegedly driving a tractor while impaired in Pisquid, P.E.I., after an accident on Route 22 involving his tractor and a small car Saturday evening.

The car was travelling west-bound when the tractor came onto the road from a driveway, but "swung out wide" into the opposite lane, explained RCMP Sgt. Chris Gunn.

"The female driver of the car thought it was unsafe and to avoid a head-on collision, swerved off the road into the ditch," said Gunn.

The 59-year-old driver was not injured but her 60-year-old male passenger was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and later released, Gunn said.

The driver of the tractor, a 59-year-old man from the Pisquid area, was taken to Kings District RCMP in Montague where he provided breath samples. Police saidthose samplesshowed his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

Police charged the tractor driver with impaired operation of a motor vehicle. The man will appear in provincial court in Charlottetown later this month, Gunn said.

"The RCMP would like to remind the public that driving any motorized vehicle while impaired by alcohol have the same penalty and repercussions," under the Highway Traffic Act and the Criminal Code of Canada, Gunn added.

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