Q&A - How Does My Son Get His Licence Back?

Counter Attack LogoIt has been over a year since my son lost his licence for pleading guilty to drinking too much wine at my new years dinner and running to the store for me. He went through a road block, and blew over. I would not have sent him if I thought he was impaired, but with the new laws, he was guilty. 

I am trying to help get him an answer as what to do now. He works in a camp job where they fly him in and out. It is sometimes a three week in and one week out routine, but this last month he has worked 52 days without coming home.

The question he wants me to find out is how does he ever get his licence back when he does no driving for his job, and no driving when he is home as that is when he has a few drinks with us or his buddies. He goes the whole time in a dry camp so deserves to drink when he is off work.

And he knows better now to drive at all if he has even one drink. In other words,he does not drive at all, so how can he get a breathalizer on his vehicle and make it work?? Does the law state if they go without driving for a year, can they get their licence back? Especially when they cannot see where a breathalizer can be used in their situation?

Not driving at work, and not driving when home, but wanting their licence in the future if needed?

I am going to assume that because your son pled guilty, it was a criminal code impaired driving charge. Please correct me if I have not guessed accurately.

There is nothing new here. It has been against the law for longer than I was a police officer to drive with a BAC over 80 mg%, commonly referred to as .08. I started my policing career in 1980.

Unless he has conditions that he must follow as part of his conviction, relating to completion of the Responsible Driver Program for example, all he needs to do is wait until his driving prohibition is over and apply to ICBC to have his licence reinstated. There will be penalties and fees to be paid before this happens. If there are conditions, then he must comply with them first before he can do this.

You mention having a breathalyzer attached to his vehicle. I'm assuming that you mean that an ignition interlock must be installed in his vehicle as a condition of his licence once it is reinstated. This is not something that he needs to do himself, someone else can take the vehicle to the installer for him.

You may be thinking about reducing penalty points by surrendering your driver's licence for a period of time. That might help with the 10 penalty points assessed for a criminal impaired driving conviction, but it will not help otherwise as far as I am aware.

In reply to by DriveSmartBC

Yes he pled guilty because he was as far as the machine thought, and he did have three glasses of wine with our dinner. 

The judge was surprised too and asked him twice if he really felt he should plead guilty. 

A lawyer would have cost way too much and he would still have to rely on the machine being wrong. 

Because his work does not involve any driving and he has many friends and relatives to drive him around, I guess he will just have to live that way without a licence. 

I could get the inter lock put on for him, but if he is only home every month at the most for five days, and this is when he is out socializing and having drinks, I do not see him ever being able to drive again

He could go to the ICBC Driver Service Center (the place where you get and renew driver's licences) and ask them what it would take to get his licence back. Then he would know for sure....