KENORA — A 38-year-old Kenora man was arrested and charged for driving under the influence after allegedly running into a local hotel, then fleeing the scene.
In a media release issued Thursday, Ontario Provincial Police said they were called around 1 a.m. on May 4 over a report of a vehicle that hit the building on Lakeview Drive. Police said after the collision, the driver took off on foot into a nearby wooded area.
Officers with the Kenora OPP detachment, the emergency response team and the canine unit tracked the man down, the release said.
Police said their investigation found the suspect was impaired by drug. It was unknown on Thursday which drug the driver was allegedly under the influence of; Hayley McLeary, the northwest region's acting sergeant of media and communications, told Newswatch a toxicology report hadn’t yet come back from the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
The driver was charged with operating a vehicle while impaired and failing to report a crash.
McLeary said the particulars of which drug was allegedly involved won’t change the charge.
The accused’s licence was also suspended for 90 days, and the vehicle impounded for seven.
The hotel, which McLeary said has several pillars outside the main entrance, suffered some damage to one of them, as it was bent in the collision.
Police said the man was released from custody with a court date in June.
It is Newswatch policy not to name people facing criminal accusations when we are unlikely to follow the case to its conclusion in the courts.
