The month of December is one of busiest times of the year on the roads and also one of the most dangerous.
Last week, the RCMP marked its seventh National Impaired Driving Awareness and Enforcement Day with a Canada-wide blitz targeting impaired drivers on Dec. 4.
In Alberta, RCMP officers were out on the roads in 112 local detachment areas and on highways throughout the province.
The goal of the operation was to take impaired drivers off the roads and to send a strong message to Albertans about the need to work together in preventing a crime that remains one of the leading causes of criminal death in Canada.
The number of drivers that were pulled over and charged during the latest blitz was not available by press time.
“It’s not just about the impaired driver. It’s about friends and family stepping up to make sure the people in their lives are sober when they get behind the wheel,” RCMP superintendent Ian Lawson, who is in charge of Alberta’s RCMP traffic service, said in a press release. “Insisting a friend crash on your couch is better than having them crash on the road—especially if you know they shouldn’t be driving.”
The RCMP conducted its first Canada-wide impaired driving blitz in 2013, and has repeated the blitz five times since then, stopping and checking more than 345,000 vehicles and laying more than 2,500 charges against impaired drivers.
More recently, the Alberta RCMP pulled over 14,683 drivers during a blitz on Aug. 1 and laid 44 charges for impaired driving. These numbers do not include drivers pulled over outside the RCMP’s jurisdiction, such as in Edmonton and Calgary.
In Jasper, the RCMP have charged 47 people with impaired driving so far this year, slightly less than last year.
According to RCMP acting Sgt. Ryan Gardiner, police will be keeping an eye out for impaired drivers during the holidays and are reminding the public to call 911 if they suspect someone is driving under the influence.
He also reminded the public to plan ahead by either walking to their destination, organizing a designated driver or simply using a taxi.
Paul Clarke [email protected]
