The results of SGI’s December Focus on Safety are out and they’re not good, Saskatchewan.
Police charged 300 people with Criminal Code offences related to impaired driving. Despite new, tougher laws and decades of public awareness, and although the recent number is slightly less than last year, we simply do not seem to be getting the message.
For years, Saskatchewan has led the provinces in alcohol-related fatalities and injuries.
The latest Statistics Canada Report, released in 2013 for the year 2011, showed Saskatchewan’s rate of impaired driving incidents at 683 per 100,000 population was three times the Canadian average (262). Although the Northwest and Yukon Territories were much worse at 1,463 and 943 respectively, among the provinces none came close to Saskatchewan. PEI was second at only 493.
Certain trends leap out from the data. Drunk driving is much more prevalent outside of Census Metropolitan Areas (the 33 biggest cities). Of those, Regina was third highest after Kelowna, BC and St. John’s, NL. Saskatoon was 11th. This makes sense. Access to public transportation is obviously greater the larger the city.
The least populated areas of the country are also the most overrepresented in the statistics with, as noted above, the territories, Saskatchewan and PEI leading the way.
By way of demographics, drunk driving tends to decline by age, with 20-24 year-olds being more than 10 times as likely to be charged with impaired driving than the 65-plus set per 100,000 licensed drivers. There are all kinds of reasons for this, the indestructability of youth, inexperience behind the wheel, higher consumption of and less tolerance to alcohol and greater incidence of going out to drink.
Not surprisingly, Saskatchewan is the second youngest province on average next to Alberta.
All of this is to say it is explainable why Saskatchewan is the drunk driving Mecca that it is.
It is explainable, but it is not excusable.
It is time to smarten up, Saskatchewan.
There are signs of change, however. In September 2015, MADD Canada gave the Province a passing grade (barely) in its annual provincial report card on legislation. The D- is a direct result of the tougher laws the government implemented on July 1, 2014.
Mandatory minimum jail sentences, which came into effect in September 2013 are also starting to have an impact. Just this week in Yorkton Provincial Court, a 43-year-old man received six-months in prison. Although he had not had a conviction in 10 years, which is usually a mitigating factor, he did have six prior convictions so the Crown proceeded by way of subsequent offence, which carries a mandatory minimum of four months and a three-year driving prohibition.
It is also much more likely in court these days to hear that an impaired driving charge was the result of a concerned citizen reporting to police. This underscores the growing sentiment that drunk driving is simply unacceptable.
It is everybody’s business to prevent drunk driving. Find a different way home. Stay overnight. Don’t drink. Take away your drunk friend’s keys.
Whatever it takes, let’s stamp out this provincial disgrace.
