Consequences of drinking and driving

Times Reporter    

 

We’ve all seen the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) commercials, or have heard stories in the news about an impaired driver killing someone, but for some reason the consequences don’t seem to stick in some people’s minds. 

On Dec. 7 2011, the Alberta government passed Bill 26, which gives the police more tools to get impaired drivers off of the road if they are over the 0.05 blood alcohol limit, which is 50 milligrams per cent or 50mg of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood.

The criminal legal limit is 0.08, which has been a standard for years and is where everything criminal would start. So if you have one drink you should be fine, right? Theoretically yes, but that’s not always true. 

“There is also a secondary part of that that says if you’re impaired while operating a motor vehicle you can be charged with impaired operation. You do not have to be over .08 or 80 milligrams percent to be charged with impaired operation. Somebody theoretically could be impaired after one drink,” said Cpl. Chris Hrynyk with the Strathmore RCMP. 

“In general our message that we like to get out there is if you have been drinking have a secondary plan in order to get home.”

If you decide to take the risk there are many consequences you could face if caught. Hrynyk said if the driver is under the GDL program and they are caught with any alcohol in their system whatsoever they automatically receive a suspension of 30 days and their vehicle is seized.

“It’s a mandatory thing that we seize their vehicle, even if it is not their vehicle we seize it. So it could be mom and dad’s vehicle, they lose it, mom and dad lose it, they can’t get it out until that suspension is over,” said Hrynyk. 

For a fully licensed driver at the 0.05 mark punishment begins. 

The first offences will result in a 72-hour suspension with a vehicle seizure. For a second offence the suspension/seizure period increases, and yet again with a third offence. 

If someone is caught driving under a suspension, that brings new charges and the vehicle can be impounded under the drivers suspension program. If the driver has driven under the driving suspension and been caught more than once, then the fine again increases.  

It has only been a year and a half since the RCMP began working with the provincial legislation. In the first six months they had been implementing and training their officers on the new approved screening devices (breathalyzer) on the road. 

“I have not noticed a major decrease, but I have not noticed a major increase either. Unfortunately with impaired driving it’s one of those situation where we know there are people out there who are drinking and driving, and we know there’s a lot of people that are not getting caught,” said Hrynyk, who had previously worked in Grande Prairie, listed as one of the highest impaired driving cities in all of Canada.

He said since he has been in Strathmore the RCMP have been catching impaired drivers and catching them at a fairly steady rate, which he said is concerning. 

“We want people to be safe, we want to ensure that other users of the road are not impacted by the impaired driver and that’s one of our primary goals out there is to identify and detect those impaired drivers and then deal with them appropriately be it provincially or criminally,” said Hrynyk.

The approved screening device is updated technology that provides different abilities in the way it operates, is quicker than the old one, and is basically an upgraded model with the new technology. Hrynyk said the new instrument can be relied upon a little more reliably than past instruments. If someone is driving a vehicle that is stopped and a request is made for a breath sample and the driver refuses, then they will be charged criminally. 

Social media has changed the way the RCMP and other police forces do their job, especially when it comes to checkstops. Just because you may not see a checkstop doesn’t mean there isn’t one, said Hrynyk. The RCMP also has roving checkstops, which is where they are driving around and checking every vehicle they see. The RCMP can stop people for license checks, sobriety of the driver and registration checks, an authority provided by the Supreme Court of Canada.  

Every person is different, said Hrynyk, and only you know your body, but he said if you’re going out for a night of drinking don’t get behind the wheel.