Driving is more dangerous in the winter, for a lot of reasons – dark days and nights, wet and icy roads, and more vehicles filled with drivers who are in a hurry.
With that in mind, none of us should be adding to December’s degree of difficulty by driving drunk.
ICBC and police forces around British Columbia launched, this past weekend, a month-long CounterAttack education and enforcement campaign to combat impaired driving. Police gave us fair warning that they would be setting up road checks and all indications are that they’ve been following through – we at the News Bulletin encountered three of them set up close together during a short road trip this past weekend.
“There is never an excuse to drive while impaired,” said Supt. Dale Carr, operations officer with the B.C. Highway Patrol, in a press release. “Not only is impaired driving illegal, but it is extremely dangerous, and the impact of impaired driving crashes impacts entire families and communities throughout the province. Please don’t mark this time of year with a tragedy.”
According to ICBC statistics, more than one-fifth of all fatal car crashes in B.C. involve impaired driving. Over the five-year period from 2018-2022, an average of 10 people per year on Vancouver Island died in crashes related to impaired driving, with another 305 per year injured.
There will be much merry-making and many cups of good cheer being passed around over the next few weeks. Most of the time the socializing won’t come as a surprise, so we should have ample opportunity to plan ahead to get home safe via taxi, ride-share service, public transit, or with the help of a designated driver.
One way or another, there are better choices than driving drunk. The more good choices community members make, the better the holiday season will be for all of us.
READ ALSO: 222 impaired drivers taken off B.C. streets in 1 night