Heavy drinking is a fact of life here

With two weeks to go in the annual Festive RIDE campaign Peterborough OPP spot checks have already caught 10 impaired drivers. That likely represents a dubious record.

Last year local OPP officers laid seven impaired charges during their entire six-week annual crackdown. In 2013? None. In 2010? Four.

Another concern is that Peterborough officers have laid more impaired charges than their counterparts in any of the other 13 Central Region detachments.

Impaired drivers aren’t just a threat to themselves. Roughly half the people killed in impaired driving accidents are innocent of any fault other than being in a vehicle with a drunk driver or being hit by one.

Most people get that, if not on their own then because of public relations campaigns about the dangers of drinking and driving that have been largely successful over the past 30 years.

Drinking and driving statistics have been tracked since 1986. They fell steadily for about 20 years, levelled out for a while and most recently have been falling again.

Ontario has performed particularly well.

Per capita drinking and driving charges here are the lowest in Canada and rank among the best of any Western nation.

But Peterborough is the worst of the best. In 2015 Statistics Canada ranked 34 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) with populations over 100,000 for per capita impaired driving charges. Nationally, Peterborough and its neighboring townships ranked 17th highest.

But this area was first, which means worst, among the 15 Ontario CMAs.

There were 159 impaired charges in the Peterborough CMA that year. Northern communities have a reputation for hard living and hard drinking, but Thunder Bay had 116 charges and Sudbury 98. Kingston did best with just 62 charges.

So why is Peterborough leading the way in such dangerous and irresponsible behaviour? One reason would be that heavy drinking is a fact of life here. The most recent report on drinking statistics from the local public health unit was done in 2011. It found the rate of excessive and binge drinking here was nine per cent higher than the provincial average, ninth highest among 36 health units.

No one should expect drinking and driving will be completely eradicated, but real improvement is still possible and necessary.

“You are your own Liquor Control Board” is a popular and clever slogan but it doesn’t apply to everyone. Alcohol impairs judgment and undermines the power of self-control.

Talk to anyone you know who might drink and drive, or is about to: your children, parents, friends, someone you just met at a party or a bar.

The life you save probably won’t be your own but it will be someone’s . . . someone else’s child, parent, friend or loved one.