Impaired driver lived ‘like Harry Potter’

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This article was published 30/07/2024 (286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 28-year-old man who pleaded guilty to impaired driving in Steinbach court explained how the cost goes well beyond his $2,200 fine and one-year driving prohibition.

Dustin Austinson told a tale of consequences from his actions on the night of Dec. 16, 2021 affected him soon after he was pulled over by Sprague RCMP on Morden Sprague Road and blew a blood-alcohol reading more than double the legal limit.

His license was taken away and his vehicle towed. Not knowing how to apply for a temporary license with conditions and living in a rural area, Austinson moved to Edmonton.

He described the room he rented to Judge Mark Kantor.

“If you could call it a room. It was under the stairs like Harry Potter,” said Austinson.

All his belongings were stolen from that room under the stairs, so he hitched rides to Saskatoon and got a ride with his cousin back to Southeast Manitoba. His options for work are limited and he is on social assistance, and Manitoba Public Insurance can put restrictions on his license much longer than the one-year driving prohibition.

“I can’t do what I’m trained to do and what I’m supposed to do. My grandpa was a logger, my dad was a logger. None of my family talk to me anymore,” said Austinson.

“I feel like a shell of a person I used to be.”

He told the judge he realized his circumstances were his responsibility, and that he has taken to sobriety.

“I don’t want to be labeled a criminal… I know I’m an alcoholic,” said Austinson.

Police pulled Austinson over after getting a call at about 8:30 p.m. from concerned staff at the South Junction Co-op. They found him driving out of the Sprague hotel parking lot 11 kilometres away and started following him.

Austinson was described by police as weaving back and forth on both sides of Road 308 before turning onto Moren Sprague Road. He blew .17 – the legal limit is .08 and 24-hour suspensions are given at .05 – and told police he had about eight beers that evening.

The judge decided to give the $2,200 fine the Crown asked for after considering the dangerous circumstances of the high alcohol reading and manner of driving, adding Austinson was driving a “two-ton weapon.”