In the News

Tougher drinking and driving laws long overdue: Higgins
The Western Star
By Frank Gale
June 16, 2010

“It’s about time!”

That was the initial reaction of Florence Higgins, past-president of the Bay St. George Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, when she heard Newfoundland and Labrador bringing in tougher laws on drinking and driving.

She said her organization has long been pushing to have the laws on drinking and driving, which are considered to be too lenient, made more stringent.

Under the current law, brought in during the 1990s, anyone who blows the “warning” sign can lose driving privileges for 24 hours. The plan is to replace it with losing driving privileges for seven days under changes to the Highway Traffic Act and the legislature will be asked to vote on it during this sitting.

That seven days increases with the number of offences up to a maximum of six months.

Higgins said under a study conducted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada to provide provinces with realistic and effective measures to reduce drinking and driving bringing in factors of road safety and laws, Newfoundland and Labrador didn’t stack up so well, coming in with a C-plus rating. The provinces of Ontario and Manitoba were tops with an A-minus rating.

She believes it’s time for this province to move up from its current rating and maybe some of the measures being implemented will help.

“When someone loses their driving privileges for overnight, they really don’t even realize their licence is gone; but when it’s gone for seven days, it’s more of a hardship and they may learn from it,” Higgins said.

There are also several other proposed changes geared to enhancing the powers of police officers to stop vehicles. There is also an automatic three-month suspension for anyone who fails or refuses a breath test, which kicks in even before the suspect is tried in court.

Novice drivers whose blood alcohol level reads more than zero will face penalties, which is a change from them being currently subject to the same drinking and driving penalties as others.

Higgins believes the zero tolerance for new drivers is really a good thing as it shows the new teenage drivers that any type of drinking and getting behind the wheel will not be tolerated.

Kevin O’Brien, Government Services minister, said the changes are long overdue and Higgins totally agrees.

“Hopefully the roads will be safer as a result of these tougher laws. Adopting these new laws will be a step in the right direction and while it will hopefully pull Newfoundland and Labrador’s ratings up, there is still a long way to go,” she said.

Higgins recently attended the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Atlantic Regional Conference in Chester, N.S. where she said a lot of what the province is looking at adopting was being discussed.

She said one of the other things her organization would like to see for those being charged for impaired driving is the blood alcohol content lowered from the current .08 per cent to .05 per cent.

“That’s probably a ways off yet but it is something that Mothers Against Drunk Driving will continue to push for until it is implemented,” Higgins said.