IMPAIRED DRIVING STILL PLAGUES SASKATCHEWAN
Heather Polischuk put a face to statistics by speaking to drivers, victims and families.
Despite bombardment with public service messages, billboards, roadside memorials and news stories, it hasn’t been enough to drive the point home for many that impaired driving can be deadly.
After more than a decade and a half covering courts and crime, I’ve sat through numerous cases in which someone lost his or her life because of someone else’s choice to drive while impaired. I’ve sat in court listening to the anguish of families as they read from victim impact statements and, often, the tearful apologies offered by guilt-stricken offenders.
The statistics are there and they’re horrible. But what’s missing in statistics are faces, and so in writing a piece on Saskatchewan’s impaired driving problem, I wanted to ensure I included the stories of people who had been through the experience.
The result was a Weekend feature entitled Impaired Driving: Why can’t Saskatchewan stop? In addition to speaking to those whose work puts them on the front lines in terms of combating this problem, I spoke with people who found themselves on different sides of impaired drivingrelated tragedies.
Justin Hodel was driving the truck that, on June 20, 2010, rammed into the back of the car carrying 88-year-old Steve Nicklin and his family. Nicklin died in hospital shortly after and Hodel was left with the guilt he says plagues him more than seven years later.
“You kind of feel like you don’t deserve any happiness because of the happiness you took away from people,” he said. “And it’s not a nice way to live afterwards.”
Hearing from people like
Hodel is, in my view, essential. Hodel described a day not unlike what many of us regularly enjoy: playing sports, hanging out with friends and spending time in a lounge. And like our province’s numbers would suggest is all together too common a scenario, Hodel was impaired when he got behind the wheel.
The only real difference between Hodel and the others who contribute to our high statistics is, quite simply, luck. Sometimes a person — and those who share the road with them — are fortunate enough to be pulled over by police, perhaps preventing a situation like the one that took Nicklin’s life.
On the other side, of course, are the victims — those who did nothing wrong and ended up paying the ultimate price for someone else’s decision.
Dakota Schmidt was with her mom Daphne Schmidt and a friend’s young children when Wade Ganje crashed into them in January on Highway 6 near the Qu’Appelle Valley.
Daphne died at the scene and Dakota was left with physical and psychological trauma that continues to impact her.
“I don’t know why people aren’t getting the message, but I think a major change needs to happen soon,” she said.
Changes are being made but, as with any change, progress seems to be slow. Perhaps, as addictions counsellor Rand Teed suggested, our problem begins with our culture of drinking. Change that, he theorized, and we will likely get a handle on our impaired driving problem.
In the meantime, I, like many others, will continue to worry every time the people I love are out on the province’s roadways.