Province pins hopes on roadside sanctions

Decriminalising drink-driving in the west of Canada has cut deaths by half, and now another province is trying the measure, which its supporters say could save numerous lives.

Alberta, the ‘‘Texas of Canada’’, used to convict about 8600 drinkdrivers a year. The new ‘‘immediate roadside sanctions’’ system means that instead of charging drivers, police will hand out C$1000 (NZ$1140) fines, confiscate licences for three months and seize vehicles for 30 days. Offenders also have to attend training programmes for a year. Only those who reoffend or cause harm or death will face criminal charges.

Bill 21, which has broad support, will make Alberta the third Canadian province after British Columbia and Manitoba to implement the change.

A study in 2016 by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that a third of Canadian road deaths involved alcohol, the highest in the developed world.

In Britain, where drink-drivers can be jailed for up to six months, the figure was half that.

Presenting the law on Thursday, Doug Schweitzer, Alberta’s justice minister, said: ‘‘The policy saves lives.’’

Critics believe the policy is too soft, however. Sheri Arsenault, whose teenage son, Bradley, was killed by a drunk driver in 2011, called the move ‘‘heartbreaking’’.

‘‘I don’t want to see any other mothers in my shoes,’’ she said. ‘‘We want enough deterrence that people don’t do it in the first place.’’

As things stand in Alberta – where in a 2014 survey one in 20 confessed to drink-driving – drivers with 0.08 milligrams of alcohol in their blood are given a criminal record and face fines or jail. Vehicles are taken for three days and licences for three months.

In British Columbia, where the approach has been trialled for a decade, drink-driving incidents have fallen by more than a third and deaths by more than half.

Politicians claim that the law will eliminate court backlogs and free up police to fight crime: first offenders are reprimanded in less than an hour.

The move also has the support of Mothers Against Drunk-Driving Canada.

The group claims that the bill will ‘‘make sure that the Albertan roads are as safe as possible and free from impaired drivers’’.

The bill comes after a law was introduced 18 months ago allowing Alberta police to stop and breathalyse drivers without suspicion of drunkennness, despite the reservations of human rights campaigners.

The Times

A study in 2016 by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that a third of Canadian road deaths involved alcohol, the highest in the developed world.