Tis the season for more road stops
Police gear up to keep drunks off the road
With the yuletide season nearing and the champagne flowing at work holiday parties across the city, Calgary officers are ramping up efforts to keep drunk drivers off the road with daytime checkstops.
As part of Operation SAIL (Save an Innocent Life), named after a University of Calgary anti-impaired driving club, officers will conduct enhanced checkstops during daytime hours in addition to the evening checkstops police do year-round.
Those daytime checkstops started Wednesday and will continue four to five days a week until the new year.
The program is about education and awareness as much as it is about enforcement, said Insp. Dean Lagrange, commander of the Calgary Police Service’s traffic section.
“With Christmas approaching, obviously drinking and driving is a serious criminal offence and we want to bring as much attention to it as we can,” he said.
“We want a high visibility presence, we want people to be thinking about other options and looking at alternatives to getting behind the wheel after having a few drinks.”
Alternatives include taking a cab, public transit, or having a designated driver at the wheel after a holiday party, he noted.
Last year, more than 5,500 vehicles were stopped during the daytime enhanced checkstops.
Officers laid four impaired driving charges, issued 19 24-hour suspensions for alcohol and 20 24-hour suspensions for drugs.
So far this year, 29 people have died in 27 collisions in the city, and 11 of
We want people to be thinking about other options INSP. DEAN LAGRANGE
those were alcohol-related.
Lagrange said that with the new drunk driving law, he hopes he won’t see a jump in suspensions issued during the holidays. He declined to comment on whether the tougher penalties have resulted in more suspensions issued during check stops since the law came into effect.
Business student Faryal Shah said she was inspired to form SAIL in January after her best friend, Arsh Brar, was killed by an alleged drunk driver just days after his 20th birthday.
“He never drank,” she said. “He was innocent.”
Brar said she’s happy to be out at the check stops volunteering with MADD. She said the response she gets when speaking with motorists stopped by police is generally positive.
While the majority of drivers stopped seem to be getting the message, until there are no more alcohol-related fatality and injury crashes, police will continue to be out in full force, Lagrange said.
Calgarians are urged to call 911 if they see a driver on the road who they suspect is impaired.