Image: BCHP

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Impaired Abbotsford truck driver

Abbotsford big rig driver in festive tractor-trailer caught for open liquor, being impaired: BC Highway Patrol

Dec 9, 2025 | 8:53 AM

FRUITVALE, B.C. — Police say an Abbotsford tractor-trailer driver has lost his commercial truck owned by an Agassiz company and his driver’s license after lighting a candle in his cab upon being stopped to mask the smell of liquor he allegedly consumed behind the wheel.

According to a statement from BCHP spokesperson Corporal Michael McLaughlin, police pulled over a Peterbilt tractor-trailer with a pair of loaded flat-deck trailers on Highway 3 B last Thursday, Dec. 4 at about 9 a.m. Police radar clocked the Abbotsford driver at 75 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. When the big rig pulled over, police say the Abbotsford man had lit a candle in the cab, immediately raising suspicion.

“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,” said Cpl. McLaughlin. “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).

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MAS is a federal law that was passed in 2018, one that enables police to check any driver for alcohol consumption. Cpl. McLaughlin says MAS is one of the important tools police deploy during the annual Winter Impaired Driving Campaign that runs the entire month of December leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve.