A Canadian man who was arrested driving a borrowed motorised wheelchair while drunk has been convicted of impaired driving, officials said on Thursday.
Patrick Shanahan (35), a self-described alcoholic who had already been convicted once of drunk driving a regular vehicle in a separate incident, was on his way home from a pub in a Toronto suburb in December 2004 at about 1.15am when he was arrested, said Corporal Jodi Dawson of the Peel Regional Police.
“Officers stopped him because he was operating a motorised wheelchair on a road, erratically, and charged him with impaired driving,” she said.
Torstar News Service had quoted Shanahan as saying: “I don’t need a licence to operate it, I don’t need insurance and I don’t need licence plates to operate it. So how can I be charged with drunk driving?”
But the court disagreed, fining him $560 and placing him on probation for 18 months, an official said. During this period, Shanahan — who is not confined to using a wheelchair — is also prohibited from driving any motorised vehicle. — AFP