In the News

Major efforts needed to stamp out scourge of impaired driving
NewsDurhamRegion.com
November 12, 2009

We often need to hear the painful, grim details of a single person's story to strike a chord when it comes to changing destructive behaviour.

That's why the tale told by Michelle Crabb, new president of the Durham chapter of Mother's Against Drunk Driving, hits home.

The 25-year-old can stand in front of a class of high school students and speak about the day, nearly three years ago, when her younger brother, Taylor, made the decision to take a ride with a drunk friend. It ended with the pair crashing into a tree in Ajax and her 20-year-old sibling's death.

As MADD kicked off its annual red ribbon campaign to bring awareness about the dangers of impaired driving, Ms. Crabb's story is a stark reminder of the true cost involved. And it happens every day.

A study commissioned by MADD prepared by the University of British Columbia on the impact of impaired driving across Canada from 1999 through 2006 discovered some startling statistics. It found 9,698 people had been killed in accidents involving impaired drivers during those eight years, an average of 1,212 per year in Canada. And 572,187 people were injured in accidents involved impaired drivers between 1999-2006, an average of 71,523 per year.

Roughly a third of all traffic accidents involve some form of impairment, a number far too high given the increasingly tough penalties developed by law enforcement. MADD continues to get the word out through public education programs, but not enough people are listening.

It's hard to understand how so many thousands of people across Canada can still, on a daily basis, get into their vehicles and drive impaired. And far too many of them wind up killing themselves, their loved ones or other innocent people.

The only answers are to continue to spread the word through the vigorous efforts of leaders like Ms. Crabb and her colleagues at MADD and through other groups committed to stamping out impaired driving. Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere patrols will be hitting Durham's highways and biways starting this Tuesday for the next seven weeks and thousands of motorists will be stopped in the largest effort of the year to contain impaired driving. And legislators can continue to toughen laws against first-time and repeat offenders to make it clear impaired driving is unacceptable behaviour that will not be tolerated.

It's imperative we do everything we can as a society to stop those horrible late-night calls that destroy lives and crush souls. Impaired driving can be stopped -- if everybody does their part to make it happen.