Forty-five fewer coffins.
If anything is going to kill off opposition to strict new anti drunk-driving legislation in Alberta, it’s 45 fewer customers for the funeral industry in the province next door.
That’s the number of lives apparently saved since B.C. adopted laws which Alberta plans to mirror next year, giving police the ability to impound cars and suspend licences for as few as two drinks.
Draconian, unconstitutional and a total disaster for the service industry: the .05 impaired driving crackdown has been called many things by opponents, but those promoting the law are calling it a great success.
“For the first time in a decade we’ve seen a real drop in the deaths associated with impaired driving, and 45 more people made it home safe in the past year as a result,” said B.C.’s Solicitor General Shirley Bond.
The statistics, released Wednesday by B.C. Premier Christy Clark, show alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths were reduced by 40% since Oct. 1, 2010, when the law was introduced.
In real numbers, that means only 68 people were killed in booze-linked collisions this year, compared to an average of 113 drunk driving deaths in each of the previous five years.
“That’s 45 more families in B.C. who have been able to keep a loved one safe from impaired drivers,” Clark told reporters.
It may as well be 45 muzzles for critics in Alberta, where a homegrown version of the B.C. legislation has become a pet project of the new premier, Alison Redford.
Bill 26, as the future law is known, gives Alberta police the ability to suspend licences and impound vehicles for motorists caught with a blood-alcohol level over .05, but less than .08.
Called an “administrative penalty,” first-time offenders in Alberta can immediately lose their licences and see their cars seized for three days, at the discretion of police.
Get caught again, and Bill 26 calls for a 15-day licence suspension, a seven-day vehicle seizure and a mandatory classroom course. A third offence, and the licence suspension hits 30 days.
With B.C. trumpeting the controversial law as a huge success for .05 enforcement, others are questioning whether the reduced death rate comes down to stricter rules, or more policing.
Outspoken B.C. lawyer Paul Doroshenko is slamming Wednesday’s announcement as a total red herring, when the real reason for the impaired death decline is extra policing.
“All the police departments in B.C. have put in tons and tons of resources this year to stop drinking and driving,” said Doroshenko.
“There are road blocks everywhere — it used to be in Vancouver you wouldn’t see one for weeks, and now there’s not a night goes by when you don’t see one.
“It’s basically all police departments in the province trying to persuade the public this is the way to go.”
He’s as cynical as an unemployed fisherman on a bar stool, but even as B.C. police officials deny the success is due to extra officers, Doroshenko’s venom has the ring of truth for Alberta.
As Redford pushes through anti-drinking legislation, no one with the Alberta government has explained how copying B.C. would make any more sense than extra enforcement of the current laws.
Even if Doroshenko is exaggerating, the question of more police, stopping more motorists still hangs.
In Calgary, for example, there are painfully few officers devoted to stopping traffic for random breath checks.
Just one Check Stop unit, and even that operating only a few days a week, is a pathetic effort in a province suddenly so serious about drunk driving.
If Redford wants to copy her fellow premier in celebrating fewer dead motorists, funding for extra police Check Stops on our highways and in Alberta’s cities makes perfect sense.
B.C.’s success is based on fear — fear of being caught, fear of losing your car. If Alberta motorists learned that Check Stops were more than a seldom-seen rarity, fear would keep the drunks from driving.
Alberta doesn’t need a new law to repeat the success seen in B.C.
We just need effective enforcement of the law we already have.
Source: http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/11/23/impaired-driving-law-cant-trump-more-cops-looking-for-drunk-drivers