Police are annoyed and baffled.
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Barrie police made one of their most unusual recent arrests Tuesday evening when they picked up a 41-year-old man for drunken snow blowing.
Around 5:30 p.m., the man wandered out into the middle of Yonge St. at Little Ave., a major intersection on the south side of Barrie.
As rush hour traffic whizzed around him, he pushed a snow blower in front of him, whipping up piles of powder on the roadway.
On two occasions, he was almost hit by passing cars. "His capacity to make sound decisions was obviously affected," said Sgt. Robert Allan of the Barrie Police Service.
A passing police officer pulled over and arrested him. The man was kept in a holding cell until he sobered up, given a ticket for public intoxication, and released.
Despite the dangers of operating a piece of machinery while drunk, police couldn't charge him with anything more, as the snow blower was a push model, rather than a ride-on.
Had the machine been a ride-on model — such as a ride-on lawnmower with a snow-blowing attachment — it would have been considered a vehicle, and the man could have been charged with drunk driving and lost his licence.
According to the Canada Safety Council, operating a snow blower can be dangerous under the best of circumstances. Adding fuel while the machine is running can cause a fire, clearing either the shoot or the auger with the motor running could seriously injure the operator's hand and there's always the danger of getting run over by the machine.
Police were also not entirely sure why the man had wandered out onto the road, or why he was trying to clear the snow off the street.
"You know, people wake up in the morning and think, 'Why did we do that?'" Allan said. "I'm sure he had one of those mornings."
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Credit: The Toronto Star.
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