With the holiday season comes dinners with family and friends, parties and the likely consumption of alcoholic drinks. In an effort to prevent impaired driving, Airdrie RCMP is ramping up its efforts to remove drunk drivers from the road.
According to Const. Tracy Hare with Airdrie RCMP’s Municipal Traffic Services, motorists in Airdrie can expect to encounter the occasional roadside Checkstop in the next few weeks, considering December is Impaired Driving Awareness Month.
“Dec. 7 is actually National Impaired Driving Detection Day. So, Airdrie RCMP will be participating in that program, [and] we will have several Checkstops planned throughout that day, along with the rest of the month,” she said, adding officers will utilize mandatory alcohol screening during these stops.
According to Hare, Airdrie is not immune to impaired driving, and the detachment receives calls about the issue on a daily basis. She added such reports tend to increase during the holiday season.
“Generally, it’s due to the fact the Christmas season often brings about people being a lot more social,” she said. “They’re getting together and having parties, and that leads to the consumption of alcohol, and then [some people make] the decision to drive afterwards.”
According to Hare, Airdrie RCMP officers made 99 impaired driving charges in the first 11 months of 2019 – 70 of which were made within city limits.
November and July were the two months with the most impaired charges laid, she said, “but that can fluctuate from year to year.”
While most charges are made on weekend evenings, Hare added, impaired drivers are caught at all times of day.
“We’ve charged impaired drivers at 7:30 a.m., after they’ve dropped their kids off at school,” she said.
“People who choose to drive impaired, some people are people who drink every day and are just in a constant state of impairment. Other people, it’s in the morning, after they’ve consumed alcohol...and they didn’t give their body enough time to metabolize the alcohol.”
A day particularly fraught with impaired driving in the city was Nov. 17. On that Sunday, according to Hare, the detachment nabbed four intoxicated drivers.
In one of those instances, at roughly 8 p.m., the driver entered a residential neighbourhood at a high rate of speed and flipped their vehicle onto its roof after colliding with four parked cars.
“On a Sunday night, a one-off like this doesn’t happen all the time, so when it does, it really stands out to us as concerning that these things are happening,” she said.
Hare said there are many viable options to ensure drivers don’t make the poor decision of getting behind the wheel after imbibing this holiday season, including the use of taxis or ride-share vehicles, staying at a friend’s or assigning a designated driver.
“It’s all about planning ahead if you’re going to a Christmas party,” she said. “There are lots of options to get safely home. It’s up to the drivers and also passengers.
“If your ride is having several drinks and you’re not comfortable, that’s a conversation to have, as well. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable and awkward, but at the end of the day, it’s your life, your driver’s life and the other people on the road’s lives, as well.”
Hare reminds Airdrie residents to report suspected impaired driving activity by calling 911.
