The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
While drunk driving is still a serious problem on our roads, progress is being made. In 2000, the number of deaths in road crashes that involved a drinking driver dropped below 900 for the first time on record; this is about 30 per cent of all traffic fatalities. About half of those killed were drinking drivers. A further quarter were passengers of drinking drivers. Recently released statistics for 2002 show impaired driving is going down, but is still the largest category of criminal offences: Impaired driving accounted for about 12 per cent of all cases heard in court, making it the largest category of offences (53,000 out of a total 452,000). Drinking and driving has become socially unacceptable. Police checks over the holiday season find less than one per cent of all drivers have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 or higher with about one in five of these above the criminal limit of 0.08. High-BAC drivers (i.e. those with BACs over 0.15) represent about one per cent of the cars on the road at night and on weekends, but nearly half of all drivers killed at those times. Most drinking drivers fall into one of two major categories: the young and the hardcore. See 'Drivers' P.# Con't from P.# Over half of all impaired driving charges are against drivers 19 to 24 years old. Most provinces require a zero BAC for novice drivers. This creates a mindset among some that obtaining a permanent licence means they are allowed to drink and drive. Moreover, under graduated licensing, many young drivers reach the legal drinking age around the same time as they qualify for their permanent licence. Those in the hardcore group repeatedly drive after drinking, with BACs that are two and three times the legal limit. Many are alcohol dependent, have previous impaired driving convictions and have driven while suspended. These individuals pose a complex and resistant safety challenge. Canada has no national law covering all aspects of drinking and driving. In our federal system, different levels of government are responsible for different parts of the problem. We do, however, have a national strategy. The Strategy to Reduce Impaired Driving (STRID) is a joint initiative by federal, provincial and territorial governments as well as road safety organizations including the Canada Safety Council. The federal government has authority for the Criminal Code of Canada. Impaired driving is considered a crime. For example, driving with a BAC over 0.08 is a criminal offence. In most Canadian provinces it is impermissible (but not a criminal offence) for ordinary drivers to operate or have care or control of a motor vehicle at levels around 0.05. A recent survey found less than half of Canadians realize there was a lower alcohol limit in their province at which police can suspend driving privileges; only six per cent know what that limit is. Fines were the most common penalty imposed for impaired driving offences in 2001/02. In about 77 per cent of cases a fine was the "most serious" sentence. However, provincial and territorial sanctions supplement the Criminal Code and often have more serious personal consequences than a fine. The mere fact of having a criminal conviction carries a lifelong stigma that can limit job and travel opportunities. Prison sentences varied considerably across the country. For instance, in Prince Edward Island, 91 per cent of those convicted of impaired driving received a prison sentence, compared with only four per cent in Nova Scotia. However, provinces which imposed imprisonment more often also tended to use shorter sentences. For example, in Prince Edward Island the average sentence length was 17 days, while in Nova Scotia it was 182 days. Impaired driving is a complex problem with no simple solutions. Canada has come a long way, but still has a long way to go. All indications are that Canada has effective laws in place. The challenge for the future will be to enforce those laws well, target high-risk groups, and continue to make drinking and driving socially unacceptable.
