SHEET HARBOUR: A 36-year-old woman from Antigonish was arrested by the Halifax Regional RCMP on Sept. 15 after being found driving while impaired by drugs in Sheet Harbour.

Police were called at approximately 6:30 p.m. after reports of an impaired driver leaving a gas station on Highway 7. Officers learned that the woman, driving a Kia Sedona, had shown signs of impairment at the gas station before continuing on to a nearby grocery store.

RCMP located the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop in the store’s parking lot.

“The officers observed signs of impairment and conducted a roadside sobriety test,” a release from the RCMP read. “The 36-year-old woman of Antigonish performed poorly on the roadside sobriety test and was arrested.”

She was taken to the Sheet Harbour RCMP Detachment for further assessment by a Halifax Regional Police Drug Recognition Expert, who confirmed she was impaired by drugs – and was charged with Impaired Operation of a Motor Vehicle.

The woman is scheduled to appear in Dartmouth Provincial Court at a later date.

The RCMP thanked the members of the public for reporting the suspected impaired driver.

“If you believe someone is driving impaired or is otherwise an immediate threat to public safety, call 911.”

Drake Lowthers

Drake Lowthers has been a community journalist for The Reporter since July, 2018. His coverage of the suspicious death of Cassidy Bernard garnered him a 2018 Atlantic Journalism Award and a 2019 Better Newspaper Competition Award; while his extensive coverage of the Lionel Desmond Fatality Inquiry received a second place finish nationally in the 2020 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards for Best Feature Series. A Nova Scotia native, who has called Antigonish home for the past decade, Lowthers has a strong passion in telling people’s stories in a creative, yet thought-provoking way. He graduated from the journalism program at Holland College in 2016, where he played varsity football with the Hurricanes. His simple pleasures in life include his two children, photography, live music and the local sports scene.