(file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Impaired driving

Impaired driving remains a problem: SGI

Feb 22, 2019 | 12:03 PM

January’s traffic safety spotlight results are in, and it seems that too many people aren’t getting the message to find a safe ride home.

There were 224 impaired driving related offences province-wide in January, including 194 Criminal Code charges and 30 roadside suspensions.

“We said when we kicked off the January traffic safety spotlight that we wanted 2019 to be the year that nobody even thinks about driving impaired. Well, clearly some people didn’t take that advice,” SGI’s Tyler McMurchy told northeastNOW. “But there are still more than 10 months in 2019 to make that happen.”

McMurchy said the goal of SGI and law enforcement is for no one to drive impaired, no one to be charged with impaired driving, and especially no one hurt or killed as a result of impaired driving.

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Provincial legislation passed this past fall includes zero tolerance for drug-impaired driving, in light of cannabis legalization.

Meanwhile, a federal law passed in December allows police to demand a roadside breath sample from any driver they pull over, and police officers in Saskatchewan have been trained in using roadside saliva testers that detect marijuana and cocaine.

Police also reported 640 distracted driving offences, including 540 cellphone tickets, 383 seatbelt and car seat tickets, and 5,160 tickets for speeding and aggressive driving.

This month’s spotlight is on seatbelts and car seats, while the focus in March will be on distracted driving.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974