Police will be on the lookout for impaired drivers on the long weekend
The Saskatoon police traffic unit will be going ahead with its planned checkstops to catch impaired drivers during the Canada Day long weekend.
And police will have extra officers at the many events happening around the city keeping an eye on traffic, the officer in charge of the unit says.
There are no plans for additional enforcement over and above what is already expected to be in place following three separate impaired driving collisions in the last week in Saskatoon.
The collisions resulted in the death of a woman and several injuries, including a fiveyear-old child who was hit by a vehicle. Three drivers have been charged in each of the collisions.
Staff Sgt. Patrick Barbar said police feel they already have the resources they need to deal with the long weekend.
He said the collisions, and that they happened so close together, are concerning, but, “if we look at a more long-term view of what's been happening, at this point, we haven't seen any major changes in the trends.”
At a June 10 checkstop, police caught three drivers who were under the influence — one impaired by cannabis and two by alcohol. Barbar said at some checkstops the numbers are higher, which is in part related to the location of the checkstop. He said the results fell within normal trends seen at checkstops.
“We checked a lot of cars, we were very heartened to see how many designated drivers are out there and how many people are actually being careful,” he said.
When asked about his message to drivers, he pointed to Saskatoon Mothers Against Drunk Driving's crashed car campaign, which aims to show the consequences of impaired driving.
He said collisions also affect the families of victims, their friends and first responders.
He's asking those who know they'll be impaired and will need to get somewhere afterwards to make a plan to have an alternate means of transportation ahead of time.
“We certainly ask people to think about those broader consequences as well,” he said.