‘A preventable crime’ MADD Canada shares concerning numbers regarding impaired driving

For National Impaired Driving Prevention Week, police are reminding everyone to drive safely whether behind the wheel of a vehicle, boat or snowmobile.

March 15 to 21 is national impaired driving prevention week and police forces have been conducting Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) checks throughout the region including one in Barrie on Dunlop Street East just outside of Barrie’s downtown.

Detective Constable Doug Bosch has been with the Barrie Police Service for a number of years and said RIDE checks is an important program that the service does and can happen at any time of day.

“We do this all year round and the fact that it’s prevention week, March Break for the children at school, and today being St. Patrick’s Day, that’s a good reason for us to be out during the daytime as well,” said Bosch.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada said the week is to put emphasis on impaired driving and National President Tanya Hansen Pratt said RIDE checks are a good visual reminder to not drive impaired.

“I think the check stops are incredibly important because they provide that visual reminder that you can be caught and that’s really the best way to alter people’s behavior, because without that visibility, people start thinking, well, it won’t be me, I won’t get caught, I’m not going to hurt anybody,” said Pratt.

Despite those visual reminders, Pratt said people throughout Canada continue to make poor decisions and get behind the wheel.

“215 impaired driving charges and short-term suspensions every day, and that works out to over 78,000 every year,” said Pratt. “That’s a massive problem and so we really need to remind people that this is a preventable crime.”

RIDE checks are sporadic and planned by police services and can happen at any time.

“We always catch impaired drivers in various parts of the city. I would like to hope that what we’re doing is reducing that,” said Bosch. “But again in my entire career, we’ve still been out here having to deal with that problem.”

New laws around impaired driving came into affect in January including longer license suspensions from three to seven days, longer look-back periods from five to ten years, and mandatory education if charged with impaired for the first time.

Police are reminding motorists to slow down when approaching a RIDE check and to listen to the officers’ questions.