Trifon’s Family Restaurant found itself in a scary situation on March 6, as a car drove through its patio in a confirmed case of impaired driving.
“It happened around 12:10 a.m. I believe,” said a witness who wished to remain anonymous. “My manager and I were talking in the off-sale when we heard a big crash. My manager looked outside and told me to grab the phone and go outside.”
“The woman had previously bought a two litre cider earlier that night. She came back again and tried to buy a two litre cider and a 12 pack of beer, but her card declined and her husband didn’t have his card, so they left to go get his card from their house. They were coming back for the liquor when they crashed.
“To top it all off they had a baby in the back seat which, thankfully, was uninjured.”
This was not the first time someone drove into the Trifon’s Family Restaurant at 1101 Kramer Blvd. Another accident took place just a couple of months prior, to a much less severe degree.
“It was a couple months ago, it was a complete total accident,” said the same witness. “The woman, I think, was trying to reverse or something but it was still in drive, and at the time the ice in the parking lot was packed in front of the sidewalk.
“So it functioned as a ramp and she hit the corner and knocked a few boards loose. Her car got written off. She felt so terrible and was in tears, she was just dropping someone off.”
Philip Mcelree, the owner of the Trifon’s, is relieved no one was affected by the latest incident and that things were handled.
“Somebody pulled up to the parking lot and, I think, they hit the gas instead of the brake,” said Mcelree. “We weren’t told too much by the police but they did end up getting arrested from what we can tell on video.
“Nobody was injured, no, everything is good. We don’t know what happened with this particular gentleman, but everybody in the car was OK.”
The vehicle in question, as can be seen in a video shared online, made an attempt in trying to reverse out of the area but was halted by the still-standing fence.
Les Parker, a Regina Police Services spokesperson, confirmed the witness’ account of the events that transpired.
“We were dispatched to the vehicle accident on the 110 block of Kramer Blvd,” said Parker. “Just after midnight we arrived. After we arrived, there was a vehicle in the patio and it struck the building.
“We charged a 26-year-old male with impaired operation of a [vehicle] and exceeded [a blood alcohol level of] 80 mg. So those were his two charges.”
Tyler McMurchy, the Media Relations Manager of SGI, was able to provide stats for impaired driving related offences for the province of Saskatchewan, numbers that range back to 2018.
“Incidents caused by the impairment by drugs or alcohol,” said McMurchy. “This was a factor in 741 collisions in Saskatchewan, 360 injuries and 43 fatalities.
“These stats are from 2018, because that’s the most recent year we have the stats for.”
