By rdnewsNOW staff

Sober Reminder

Penhold peace officers to demonstrate dangers of impaired driving to area motorists

Jul 28, 2020 | 11:50 AM

With thousands of central Albertans anticipated to hit the highway this August long weekend, Town of Penhold Community Peace Officers (CPO) will be taking part in an initiative to raise awareness of the dangers and consequences of impaired driving.

Town officials say the initiative involves getting a vehicle that has been involved in a collision, then placing the vehicle alongside the road to demonstrate a potential consequence to impaired driving.

“We were happy to partner with our amazing local businesses on this initiative,” says CPO Jay Klause, in a press release. “We wanted to remind our community and others coming through Penhold, of the dangers associated with impaired driving. A lot of people still think it is okay to drive after one or two drinks, or while using cannabis.”

The display will be set up on the corner of Hwy 2A and Lucina Street in Penhold from July 31 to August 4 to remind passing motorists of the dangers of driving while impaired.

Mayor Yargeau stated, “Our priority is, and always will be, to keep the Town of Penhold a safe place to live and visit. We are proud to be the first municipality to bring this unique project to our community. Without a local MADD Canada chapter, and with the great work of our Penhold Community Peace Officers, we are happy to join the many individuals, groups, and corporations across Canada in the fight against impaired driving.”

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Town officials note this community lead initiative was piloted in May 2020 with the MADD Parkland Chapter which covers Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County. In total 30 partnerships have been formed, 34 municipalities are involved and numerous motorists have seen the crashed vehicles and have been reminded of the dangers and consequences of impaired driving.

According to 2017 Alberta Traffic Collisions Statistics from Alberta Transportation:

• A total of 1.7 per cent of drivers involved in injury crashes were judged to have been legally impaired, compared to 10.2 per cent of drivers involved in fatal collisions. As the severity of the collision increased, the involvement of impairment dramatically increased.
• In terms of involvement per 1,000 licensed drivers, males between 22 and 24 years of age were most likely to have been legally impaired. There were over three times as many male impaired drivers as female impaired drivers.
• In 2017, impaired driving casualty crashes were most likely to have occurred in July, on Saturday, and between 11:00 p.m. and 2:59 a.m.