CLARKWATCH: Follow news and updates regarding sanctions on Mayor Clark.

Medicine Hat man charged following impaired driving collision last week

Jan 31, 2019 | 11:06 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat Police have released the name of a man charged following an impaired driving collision last week which sent a child to hospital with a serious spinal injury.

Regan Glauser, 38, of Medicine Hat, was charged with two counts of impaired operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm, two counts of dangerous operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm and one count of refusal to comply with a breath demand after being involved in an accident that caused bodily harm.

Officers responded to a head-on collision at 6:42 p.m. on January 25 involving a 2013 Dodge Ram and a 2013 Honda Odyssey.

According to police, the Dodge Ram allegedly crossed the centre line on Hill Road Southeast and hit the Odyssey, which was occupied by a mother and a two year old child. Police initially said injuries were only sustained by the mother, but later learned the child was diagnosed with a serious spinal injury at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital. The child was later transported to the Calgary Children’s Hospital for treatment.

Glauser was arrested on the scene on the collision and charged with impaired and dangerous driving, and allegedly refused to provide a breath sample. He was arrested again on Tuesday.

Sergeant Clarke White with the Medicine Hat Police Service’s traffic unit says since new impaired driving laws came into effect on December 18, police have arrested 16 impaired drivers, compared to six at the same time the year before. White says they’ve also issued seven immediate roadside suspensions under the new laws came into effect, compared to one in the previous year.

“The ability for us to detect impaired driving has increased,” he said. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s no longer a matter of if you’re going to get caught, but when. I think people need to take that into consideration.”

White says this crash also illustrates the dangers of impaired driving.

“We talk all the time about the consequences of licence suspensions and impaired driving. This is the real consequence,” he said. “We’ve got a two-year-old that is seriously injured, and a family that is deeply impacted for quite a long time to come, I would imagine, and that’s the consequence.”

Glauser has since been released from custody, and is scheduled to appear in Medicine Hat Provincial Court on February 19.