A 43-year-old woman is facing charges for impaired driving and leaving the scene of a crash after attempting to flee from police by driving down the beach in front of the Oak Bay Marina on Nov. 23. (Oak Bay Police/Twitter)

Victoria woman drives over seawall onto beach near Oak Bay Marina

Driver faces charges for fleeing crash, refusing breathalyzer test

  • Nov. 27, 2020 12:00 a.m.

An impaired driver who jumped the seawall in Oak Bay and attempted to flee by driving down the beach faces numerous charges.

Just before 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 23, Oak Bay police received a report from a resident in the 2400-block of Lansdowne Road who said she’d witnessed a hit and run on the street in front of her house, said Deputy Chief Mark Fisher.

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The caller told police she’d heard crash and when she went out to look, saw the driver of a black sedan had crashed into an SUV.

“The female driver of the sedan appeared to be impaired as she was stumbling and had slurred speech when she exited her vehicle to examine the damage,” Fisher said. According to the caller, the driver grabbed her licence plate from the street, got back in her vehicle and took off eastbound down Lansdowne Road.

Not long after, an Oak Bay police officer in the 1600-block of Beach Drive spotted a black sedan heading south and started following it. As they approached the 1300-block of Beach Drive, the sedan’s driver “failed to navigate the curve in the road and continued straight” and drove over the seawall onto the beach near the Oak Bay Marina.

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In an attempt to flee, the woman drove about 75 feet down the beach, Fisher said. Officers arrested the 43-year-old Victoria resident and she spent the night in jail.

The driver was issued a 90-day driving prohibition and faces charges for refusing to provide a breath sample, dangerous operation of a vehicle and failing to stop after a collision. She has a court date set for Feb. 17.


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