Impaired Driver Prevention Week ends, message remains: don't drink and drive

LETHBRIDGE -

MADD Canada has been reminding drivers it's never OK to drink and drive, as it wraps up its Impaired Driver Prevention Week.

While the week might be ending, MADD Canada CEO Steve Sullivan says it should be an ongoing reminder.

"Impaired driving is a conversation we want to have all year round. But weeks like this help us focus a message, helps governments focus a message, just to remind people," Sullivan said.

"We're heading into the spring, which means we're heading into summer. People are hopefully going to be out more. There's going to be barbeques. We're going to be with friends."

In 2022 Lethbridge police caught 285 people driving while impaired, up from 272 in 2021.

LPS officers say it's something they have to deal with all too often.

"It's something that I would say we come across most days," said Sgt. Brent Paxman.

"There isn't many days that we go without catching at least one impaired driver within our city limits."

According to Sullivan, impaired fatalities increasingly involve cannabis and other drugs.

"We're finding an increase in the presence of drugs in more and more fatal crashes and so that's concerning. I think that suggests something to this. We're also finding higher levels of alcohol and drugs in a fatal crash," Sullivan said.

LPS and MADD Canada partner on a number of initiatives like check stops and awareness campaigns throughout the year, all with the goal to get impaired drivers off the streets.

"A lot of those check stops happen around the holidays throughout the year. But we do, as the Lethbridge police service, we do random check stops throughout the year," Paxman said.

MADD Canada estimates 1,250 to 1,500 Canadians are killed each year in impaired driving-related crashes.

On average, four people a day are killed and 175 are injured.