Transportation and Public Works

Impaired Driving Jan. 28, 2005

January 28, 2005
MLAs told of latest technology in fight against impaired driving
By Ron Ryder, The Guardian

The future fight against impaired driving could include everything from in-car breathalyzers to marijuana detection technology, Island MLAs were told Thursday.

John MacDonald, director of Highway Safety and information technology at the Department of Transportation and Public works, and Graham Minor, acting registrar of motor vehicles, appeared before the legislature's Social Development Committee to update politicians on the Department's measures to put a stop to impaired driving.

MacDonald said impaired driving is the number one criminal cause of death and injury in Canada today. Bu the said the problem is less severe than it was two decades ago when penalties could be as lenient as a fine with no driving suspension.

in 1978,'78,'79, '80 it was up to over 1,500 convictions for impaired drivers," MacDonald said.

"We'd like to think that the legislative and enforcement changes we have made since then have brought it to where it is today - at 301."

Criminal penalties for impaired driving now include mandatory one-year suspensions, fines and jail time. Administrative penalties can involve vehicle impoundment, driving ban and even mandatory addiction treatment before a license is reissued.

"If you can blow .24 (on a breathalyzer) and still operate a vehicle, even if it is your first offence, we know you are not a casual drinker," Minor said.

MacDonald said the aim of aim of his department is not so much to force people to deal with alcohol problems as it is to encourage then to separate the activities of drinking and driving. he said the department already has measures imposing zero alcohol tolerance on new drivers and those under 18.

He said the next step may be ignition interlock devices that require a clean breath sample before a driver can start his vehicle.

The machines, which a court could order installed on a problem driver's vehicle, would require periodic clean samples of breathe in order for a car to continue running.

MacDonald said an ignition interlock system would require some legislative changes that would take until the fall of 2005 or spring 2006 to put into place.

He said the devices could be installed by approved auto service stations and that the costs would be borne by drivers themselves.

Minor said the education is the major tool in fighting impaired driving. He said the success of that approach has been shown in the declining number of repeat drivers and in the growing awareness among young people of the danger of drinking and driving.

"There doesn't seem to be the same aversion to smoking dope and driving," Minor said.

"The next wave of technology may have to be something that could determine whether someone is impaired on marijuana or not."

Alex Poole, another presenter at Thursday's hearings, gave MLAs a personal look at the impact of impaired driving.

Poole was 20 years old, and a proud owner of a AMC Javelin muscle car, when he topped off 12 hours of drinking with a drive that changed his life.

"I was three miles from home and it took me seven months to get there," he said.

Poole barreled around a corner on Bell's Hill, near Brudenell, hit the opposite ditch and sent his car into a 997-foot roll that saw the vehicle flip 13 times.

"It was black with flames up the sides, that seems like a bad omen considering how things turned out," he said.

He never walked again.

Today, 29 years later, Poole has joined the department as a lecturer. he visits Island Schools, telling that the worst-case scenario can happen to people who take chances with impaired driving.

"I believe everybody young suffers from a bit of invincibility complex. I know I did," he said.

"Around the grade 12 students, the ones who have had sex education, I ask them to think about what it means to lose all feelings below the belly button at the age of 20 and to know it's not coming back for the rest of your life."

Poole said he advises the people he sees to be careful about impairment from any source whether booze, pot or doctor-prescribed medications.

He said his talks seems to have a real impact, getting beyond the "class president" types to the more rebellious young people who remind him of his younger self.

"When somebody in a Metallica shirt covered in blood, someone covered in tattoos comes up to thank me for the talk, I think that might be someone I've made a difference for," he said.

"I used to be that way about my drinking and drugs. I'd say 'I'm not hurting anyone. It's my life.' But I hurt everyone I knew."