SNOW PLOW DRIVER DITCHES TRUCK, CHARGED WITH IMPAIRED

MUSKOKA — Impaired driving is becoming a daily problem morning, noon and night in Muskoka.

Beggars the question: are your roads safe to drive or walk?

Every day it seems another drunk is pulled off thanks to police or citizens calling 911 to report them.

Take yesterday, for example, OPP patrolling Gravenhurst and conducted a traffic stop on Winewood Avenue at 2:20 p.m.

After an investigation into his driving behaviour, 24-year-old Mitchell Casserley, of Muskoka Lakes Township, was arrested and charged with Operation While Impaired- Over 80 CC 320.14(1)(b).

Casserley is to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice in Bracebridge on March 23, 2021.

Less than five hours later, Jan. 7, at 7 p.m. officers along with Muskoka EMS and Muskoka Lakes Fire Department were dispatched to a single vehicle collision that occurred on Muskoka Road 118 in Muskoka Lakes Township involving a truck with a snow plow attached that left the roadway and ended up in the ditch.

There was significant damage to the vehicle and the occupant had to be extricated and transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Muskoka Road 118 was closed in that area for some time while police conducted the investigation and charged 34-year-old Daniel Hamilton, of Port Carling, with Operation While Impaired CC 320.14(1)(a) and Failing to Wear a Seatbelt.

Hamilton will appear in the Ontario Court of Justice in Bracebridge on March 23, 2021.

These two individuals had their vehicles towed and impounded and have had their driver’s licences suspended for 90 days.

This brings to five the number of impaired drivers charged by police in south Muskoka during the first week of 2021.