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By Steven Wilson
For the month of March, SGI and law enforcement throughout Saskatchewan put the traffic safety spotlight on impaired driving, specifically how the limit for criminal charges – .08 – isn’t the limit where consequences for impaired driving begin. This month, the focus is again on impaired driving, but this time the emphasis is on another facet of how impaired driving is handled on the roads in Saskatchewan.
“This month we’re highlighting the Report Impaired Drivers program, which essentially encourages the public to report a driver they suspect might be impaired,” explained Tyler McMurchy, the manager of media relations with SGI. “The message that we’re trying to get across is when you’re doing that, you’re actually helping that person – you’re not snitching on them, you’re potentially saving their life.”
McMurchy highlighted statistics that show when someone is killed in an impaired driving collision, in more than half of the fatal collisions the impaired driver is the one who loses their life.
The Report Impaired Drivers program, or RID, has had some successes in Weyburn in recent weeks. There were at least two calls connected to the program in March that resulted in police making a traffic stop. One of those stops resulted in an impaired driving charge.
The usage of the program across the province has had strong results, according to McMurchy.
“Last year, the operators who received RID calls reporting impaired drivers, those calls resulted in more than 370 criminal code charges, as well as another 130 roadside suspensions and 50 other charges, so it does make a huge difference having the public be an extra eyes and ears out there for police,” he elaborated.
McMurchy added that the reason for the back-to-back months of the focus being on impaired driving comes down to the numbers in Saskatchewan.
“We remain very strongly focused on the subject of impaired driving as long as it is the number one cause of death on Saskatchewan roads, so one of the things that we can do – by focusing on Report Impaired Drivers – is delivering that message that not only making the decision that you’re not going to drive impaired is one way that you can contribute to safe roads, but you can also contribute to safer roads by making sure that other people don’t drive impaired as well,” McMurchy included.
Numbers at the provincial level from the month of March are expected to be released later in April.
