{"id":62307,"date":"2026-02-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=62307"},"modified":"2026-02-11T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:00:00","slug":"police-investigating-impaired-driving-related-fatal-collision-in-digby-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=62307","title":{"rendered":"Police investigating impaired-driving related fatal collision in Digby area"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56514&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DIGBY COUNTY<\/strong>: RCMP officers in Digby are investigating a fatal head-on collision that occurred in Ashmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 8, at approximately 9:15 p.m.,\u00a0RCMP, EHS and fire services responded to a report of a collision on Hwy. 101. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An eastbound Volkswagen Atlas and a westbound Toyota Corolla collided in the 5800 block of the roadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The driver of the Toyota, a 45-year-old man from the Weymouth area, was pronounced deceased at the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A passenger in the Toyota was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56501&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56526&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The passenger in the Volkswagen was also transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The driver of the Volkswagen fled the scene on foot before officers arrived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was located shortly afterward inside a nearby, unoccupied travel trailer, where he showed signs of impairment and was arrested.<br><br>The man was transported to the Digby RCMP Detachment, where he provided a breath sample that registered 150mg%. He refused to provide a second sample.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56376&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Jonathan Ryan Preuss, 45, from Bridgetown, has been charged with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Impaired Driving Causing Death<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Failure to Comply with Demand after Accident Resulting in Death<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Failure to Stop After Accident Resulting in Death<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unlawfully in a Dwelling<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>More charges are anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An\u00a0RCMP\u00a0collision reconstructionist attended the location of the collision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The investigation is ongoing with support of the Medical Examiner Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56509&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Preuss appeared in Digby Provincial Court on February 9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was released by the courts on conditions and is due to reappear on February 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone with information or dashcam video of the collision is asked to contact the\u00a0Digby RCMP at 902-245-2579. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To remain anonymous, call Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers, toll-free at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), submit a secure web tip at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimestoppers.ns.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.crimestoppers.ns.ca<\/a>\u00a0or use the P3 Tips app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>File #: 2026-176786 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56530&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DIGBY COUNTY: RCMP officers in Digby are investigating a fatal head-on collision that occurred in Ashmore. On February 8, at approximately 9:15 p.m.,\u00a0RCMP, EHS and fire services responded to a report of a collision on Hwy. 101. An eastbound Volkswagen Atlas and a westbound Toyota Corolla collided in the 5800 block of the roadway. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[10313,1548,9731,2634,6347,14],"class_list":["post-62307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-ashmore","tag-digby","tag-digby-county","tag-fatal-mvc","tag-head-on-collision","tag-rcmp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}