Good News, Bad News, and Happy Birthdays
By Lynne Bell
SGI has recently released its annual report on Saskatchewan traffic accidents. There's good news and there's bad news.
The good news is the total number of traffic accidents involving alcohol is the lowest it has been in five years. The bad news is that the number of fatal accidents involving alcohol on the province's roads has increased.
In 2014, tougher penalties were enacted for impaired drivers, in an effort to decrease the carnage on Saskatchewan's roads. However, measures that include longer licence suspensions, vehicle seizures, and zero tolerance for alcohol for drivers under the age of 19 have seemingly failed to make a significant difference. In fact, data collected by Statistics Canada in 2013 declared Saskatchewan the province with the worst record for drunk driving in the country. And although the federal agency won't conduct another survey until 2017, it's safe to surmise that impaired driving is still, unfortunately, not uncommon.
I'm sure most of us know someone who has been affected by impaired driving. Whether it's someone we know who has lost their licence or worst of all, someone who has lost a loved one to an entirely preventable tragedy, many of us know-or know of- someone who has experienced life-altering consequences as the result of their-or someone else's-impaired driving.
But what is the solution?
Great progress has been made by a combination of education and harsher penalities. Appealing to most people's natural desire not to inflict pain on others or themselves has certainly been a contributing factor in reducing incidents of impaired driving, overall.
But here's the deal: Nobody ever sets out to cause a fatality after drinking. Whether one is celebrating with a few drinks or drowning their sorrows, no one ever intends to turn a drinking session into an unalterable tragedy.
But alcohol makes we humans feel invincible and gives us a false and dangerous confidence, where the possibility of penalties and potential tragedy disappears.
I have no answers to this depressing and entirely preventable problem. But I am heartened by the common sense of people who make a concerted effort to avoid contributing to yet another roadside tragedy.
One of my co-workers is currently planning a birthday bash and she and her husband have made arrangements to hire a designated driver to be on-duty throughout the entire party. If they wish, guests may tip the driver, but Tammy and Dale are paying the driver to be available to ensure that every guest-and others on the road-arrive home safely.
Thanks to the actions of people like them, more people on this province's highways will live to celebrate their birthdays, too.
And hey, Happy Birthday, Tammy-and thank you.
What’s the solution in combating drinking and driving?
By Kelly Running
Impaired driving following a few drinks used to occur quite often which would result in vehicle collisions of all sorts. Whether someone simply hits the ditch and passed out behind the wheel to causing death, the results of drinking and driving have – over time – led to harsher punishments.
Has this had an effect on people drinking and driving? The most recent stats available on the SGI website regarding drinking and driving are from 2014, but it reads as follows: in 1995 there were 991 people injured and 61 killed for a total number of 1,052 victims, while in 2014 the number injured were down to 536 but the number killed remained comparable to 1995 at 59 people for a total of 595 victims.
Within these incidents there were also personal injuries and fatalities to the drivers as well, which were listed separately from the number of victims in the SGI report. So, not only have the collisions reported involved the numbers of injuries and deaths of victims, but you can add on more injuries and deaths of drivers.
In 1995 there were 558 injuries and 58 fatalities of those causing the collisions. In 2014 there were 306 injuries and 50 deaths involving the individual who decided to drink and drive.
So, although injuries have dropped and number of alcohol related collisions has dropped, the number of fatal alcohol related collisions remains high.
In order to combat this, new rules for drivers caught drinking and driving have become stricter, with longer license suspensions, vehicle seizures, and a zero tolerance for alcohol for drivers under the graduate program for licensing.
These changes came into effect because of a concern after seeing in 2013 of Saskatchewan having the worst impaired driving record out of any other province at a total of 1,284 collisions, with 590 victims injured and 42 victims killed as well as 379 injuries and 35 fatalities of drunk drivers involved within the number of collisions as well.
In January of this year a man was sentenced to four years in prison for a collision caused by alcohol impairment resulting in the death of a young woman.
Are threats of license suspensions, vehicle seizures, and prison deterring people from driving? Is there another way to stop people from drinking and driving? When people are drinking they lose their inhibitions, they’re not really thinking about the consequences of whether they get behind the wheel or not, because if they were then the risk of killing someone and waking up sober to deal with the aftermath of guilt would be deterrent enough, no?
Besides penalties are great if you catch someone in the act, but what happens when it’s too late? A license suspension or vehicle seizure is meaningless when the collision has already occurred.
In Saskatchewan, predominantly rural, people often drink and drive because they feel they have no other option. In cities there are taxis, buses, the possibility of walking home, and calling a friend or family member for a ride. In rural areas you can call a friend or family member, but then you’re inconveniencing people and your vehicle will be left wherever you are and this that or the other thing. There are too many excuses people make when they’re drinking that a more worthwhile initiative than continuing to up impaired driving penalties, would be to find a solution for people to use which they would use as an alternative to driving while intoxicated.
I don’t have the answers; I’ve told people that if they are drinking and need a ride that I would come get them, but would they actually call? What option in a rural area would make someone leave their vehicle and find an alternate way to get home safely? Because even if they’re told they can stay at someone’s house after drinking, there always seems to be one intoxicated individual thinking they’ll be ok and will even become belligerent if told they shouldn’t drive.
