Nickelback drunk-driving trial delay makes MADD madder

It's taking too long to bring people charged with impaired driving to trial, anti-drunk driving activists say, andaCanadian rock star's proceedings are a case in point.

"The courts are failing," Helen Hoeflicker, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver branch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said on Monday,citingthetrial of Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger on an impaired driving charge.

"They are supposed to protect society," she told CBC News. "This is a criminal offence but they're playing games as far as I can see."

In Kroeger's case, the presiding judge decided on Monday to accept as evidence the result of his roadside breathalyzer test. Court proceedings were put on hold for two months whilethat decision was being made.

The judge is also expected to set a date next week for the trial to resume.

Kroeger, the frontman for the popular band, was pulled over by police at a Surrey intersection in June 2006 for speeding. Officers decided he was impaired after he blew over the legal limit.

Kroeger's lawyer had argued the test results should be excluded on the grounds of illegal search and seizure.

Nickelback's membersare originally from Hanna, Alta., but moved to Vancouver in the 1990s to launch their careers.

The Juno Award-winning band has had a series of chart-toppers, beginning in 2001 with How You Remind Me.