OPP spends Easter nabbing impaired drivers

The Huntsville OPP arrested three impaired drivers on three separate occasions over the Easter holiday weekend.

On March 21 at about 8:40 p.m., officers stopped a vehicle on Ravenscliffe Road for highway traffic act offences. The driver, 53-year-old Leigh Walker of Huntsville, was found to have consumed alcohol. Walker was also found to be in possession of a substance believed to be marijuana.

Walker was charged with having over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millitres of blood, driving while impaired, possession of an illegal substance and other highway traffic act offences.

He is scheduled to appear in Huntsville court on April 16 to answer to his charges.

On March 22 at about 8:30 p.m., the Huntsville OPP attended a motor vehicle collision on Hwy. 60.

Police found that the driver, Mark Besharah, 52, of Iqaluit, Nunavut had been drinking. Besharah was charged with over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood and impaired driving. Besharah is scheduled to appear in Huntsville court on the April 16 to answer to his charges.

On March 23 at about 8:30 p.m., officers stopped a vehicle on Hwy. 11 in Huntsville for highway traffic act offences. Forty-one-year-old Bryan Murray of Huntsville was found to be drinking. Murray was charged with having over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

Murray is scheduled to appear in Huntsville court on April 16 to answer to his charges.

According to the Ottawa-based Traffic Injury Research Foundation, the number of Canadians driving drunk has jumped almost three per cent in three years, up from 5.6 per cent in 2004 to 8.2 per cent.

ATV goes missing from Brunel Road

The Huntsville OPP are investigating a theft of an ATV from a property on Brunel Road.

Sometime overnight on March 17, unknown culprits entered a yard on Brunel Road and removed a 2007 Honda ATV 680 from the driveway. The ATV was secured to a tree with cable and had a tarp over it. The ATV had an Ontario licence plate of 45MC1.

Anyone with any information about this or any other theft is asked to contact the Huntsville OPP at 789-5551 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.