By Tom Mark / KISS FM Vernon

Vernon Mayor Mund sorry for drinking and driving

Nov 7, 2017 | 8:00 AM

VERNON, B.C. — Vernon’s Mayor isn’t dismissing the warning he received after being stopped by a Mountie and taking a roadside breath test.

Akbal Mund received the 3 day driving prohibition and fine after being stopped just after 2:00 am October 28 when he picked up a friend who needed a ride himself.

“I was at an event. I had a couple of drinks at the event. I’d gotten home. I’d seen some friends at the event and I said look, you guys need a ride just give me a call, no big deal. Got home. I really hadn’t eaten a lot that day. Got the call. Went down
to pick them up. As we were leaving the downtown got pulled over. Not because I was driving in any bizarre way or anything. They have the downtown enforcement unit that pulls vehicles over on certain nights as you’re just leaving the downtown, that’s what the officer told me. So he said I’m going to give you a breathalyzer. I said fine. Gave me a breathalyzer and I blew in the warning.”

Mund says he had two drinks earlier in the evening and didn’t think it was going to affect him but it taught him a lesson.

“Well, it does. And that’s what I mean. That’s the seriousness of it. Lesson learned like I said. Did I honestly believe I was impaired when I left home? No I didn’t. I mean people could ask me that. I felt I would be fine to be honest. I didn’t feel stumbling and bumbly. I wasn’t pulled over because I was driving erratically.”

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Mund says he’s not challenging the warning and understands how some people would be upset with him.

”I made a mistake by driving that night. My intention was never to put the public at risk in any way. I believed I was fine to drive. My last drink was three hours earlier. So, lesson learned. After a couple of drinks you’re never fine to drive.”

The mayor says he doesn’t know what level he blew.

He says the tester only shows a warning.

In most cases, a warning shows when someone blows at least 0.05 mg/L.

Mund says he’s taken taxis and other services home before when he has had drinks.

This time, he didn’t think he’d had an amount to drink to cause a problem.

Next time?

“Well, the bottom line is you don’t ever have a drink and drive right, because you don’t know how your body is going to react to that drink. The law states that you blow a certain limit that you’re impaired to drive, so be it.”

He says he owned up to the mistake and made no attempt to argue with the officer who stopped him or inform him who he was.

He says it’s unfortunate; what he did was wrong and he apologizes for that.