Another holiday season has come and gone and although Kimberley was a much busier place than it has been the past two winters, it wasn’t noticeably busier from the perspective of the RCMP.
Kimberley RCMP detachment commander Sgt. Steve Woodcox said that since L&K Taxi shut their doors, RCMP hasn’t seen an increase in impaired driving in this city.
READ MORE: Kimberley’s L&K Taxi closes
“Impaired driving no doubt though remains an issue in this community and everywhere else, but we haven’t seen any kind of noticeable increase since the cabs have disappeared from town here,” Woodcox told the Bulletin.
He added that despite Kimberley seeing a return to pre-COVID, pre-arson levels of conviviality, the detachment didn’t notice an uptick in crime or incidents over the holidays.
“I worked some days myself and it wasn’t super busy,” he said. “We had some issues on those days where all the roads were an ice rink so there were multiple [motor vehicle incidents] and things like that, a part of Meadowbrook road by the highway had to be closed down, but besides that nothing of great interest to be honest.”
Woodcox noted that in Kimberley, as well as other communities he’s worked, instances of impaired driving among youth have been on the decline.
“Some of the younger kids, they seem to be more in tune to what’s going on and they’ll have a designated driver and some of our repeat offenders seem to be some of those people that are older in age and have been doing it their whole life and just kind of continue to do it.”
Woodcox, who only moved to Kimberley about two and a half years ago, added that it’s been good to see Kimberley’s tourism and local community start to pick up again.
“I’ve been here about two and a half years now, but my first two years were COVID and there was really nobody up there [at the ski hill],” he said,
“People were always telling me how busy it got and I drove up here during the holidays and I thought, ‘wow, it was quite busy up there,’ and it was great to see.”
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter