November 7, 2012 marks a bittersweet anniversary for MADD Canada, an anniversary the Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization wishes it didn't have to acknowledge.
The 25th annual Red Ribbon campaign continues to remind drivers not to get behind the wheel impaired over the holiday season.
Organizers say it's disappointing that, after 25 years, people still aren't getting the message.
Faryal Shah's plea is especially poignant. The 20-year-old university student started S.A.I.L (Save An Innocent Life) after her friend Arsh Brar was killed in a drunk driving crash in January of 2012.
“When that happens it's just like, you feel like you've been victimized,” says Shah. “He (Brar) wasn't drinking, he wasn't the one being irresponsible.”
“I basically wanted to get the message out, ‘It could be you’. ‘Don't' think that it can't be’. ‘It can always be you’.”
Calgary's police chief Rick Hanson has released statistics for the first month of Alberta's new .05 alcohol-blood level legislation. The numbers show a significant decrease in the number of alcohol-related driving offences in September of 2012 compared to September of 2011.
Chief Hanson believes the new legislation and the threat of vehicle seizure is causing people to behave more cautiously when it comes to drinking and driving.
