Alexa’s Bus  in Prince George – photos 250News

Prince George, B.C.-  The big purple motor  coach will be  in Prince George for the balance of the month, it is Alexa’s Bus, a mobile road safety unit that is the first of its kind in Canada.Completed in December, the unit  is a police station on wheels, complete with two  breathalizer testing stations equipped with the same testing  equipment  you  would expect to find at any police station.  Thee are two ‘privacy’ rooms,  where  those suspected of impaired driving can  call  their lawyers.

The  unit has  a washroom,  live video feed to  ‘E’ Division  Traffic services ,  there are two  work stations for  officers to work on their files,  and there are a few creature comforts in the form of a sink, micro-wave and a coffee machine.

(at right,  PG RCMP Media Liaison Corporal Craig Douglass demonstrates the ‘walk the straight line’ test inside the  Mobile Unit)

“It is, primarily, a mobile breath testing  unit” says North District  Traffic Services Staff Sergeant Pat McTiernan.  No longer will an officer have to take a suspected impaired driver back to the detachment  to  administer the breathalizer, it can all be done in the comfort of the mobile unit.  The unit  is also equipped  to  handle  drug impairment testing.

The  unit cost  more than $440 thousand dollars,  with  $300 thousand  of those dollars raised by the Middelaers, the family  devastated by the death of their 4 year old daughter Alexa.

From the custom license plate ‘4 ALEXA’  to the  purple paint job ( Alexa’s favourite colour) and a touching image on the  back of the  unit,  Alexa’s story is evident.

Four year old Alexa Middelaer was at the side of the road,  feeding a horse, when she was killed by a drunk driver.  An image  on  the back of the bus replicates that final moment for Alexa, although  artistic license had a police officer added to the  scene. ( see image below left)

The  “Police Road Safety Unit”  will be  in Prince George  for the duration of the Canada Winter Games, but   it is not part of the  Policing plan for the Games.

“We hope to have this unit  available to  be at major events throughout B.C.,” says Staff Sergeant McTiernan “We brought it here for its inaugurational  run in North District,  it is here as a poster that it is available to North District,  that we will have it  at events like  the Williams Lake Stampede,  it will be here during the Canada Winter Games,  it will be here as an  educational piece and it will be working throughout the Games as well  with our personnel.”

The educational opportunity  includes video screens where anti-drunk driving messages  can be shown.

“The beauty of this unit is that it  is mobile,  it will be moving around the  area  with the North District Traffic Unit” says McTiernan.