Many are still missing the message

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Despite high profile cases that have taken over the headlines in recent months, it seems some in Durham Region are still missing the message on impaired driving.

Locally, over the Easter weekend, 10 people were arrested for getting behind the wheel while impaired, including one woman who was caught driving 145 km/h in an 80 km/h zone, and another man who was caught with more than $16,000 worth of prescription and illicit drugs in his vehicle.

However, according to Sgt. Bill Calder, a spokesperson for Durham police, that isn’t even one of the highest weekends the force has seen.

“It’s just alarming because there’s so many more people out on the roads for the holiday weekends like that,” he says.

DRPS released the news the same day that Marc Muzzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he got behind the wheel in September while impaired. That decision led to a crash that killed three children under the age of 10, their grandfather and injuring two other people.

Most recently, an impromptu RIDE program in Oshawa on March 31 garnered surprising results, with two people arrested and three ticketed in under an hour.

In the early hours of the morning blitz, police first arrested a 52-year old male when his car was spotted weaving in its lane on Rossland Road East.

Another 34-year-old male of Cobourg was arrested and charged with impaired driving when he was spotted driving the wrong way on Simcoe Street North, directly toward officers heading south.

In the area of Harmony Road North and Copperfield Drive, officers arrested a Bowmanville woman for driving with a blood alcohol level exceeding .08 milligrams.

Two novice drivers were also ticketed for having a blood alcohol content above zero.

For Calder, he says it’s not that people are not getting the message to not drink and drive – they’re just choosing to ignore it.

“The message is loud and clear and we put it out there too many times,” he says. “You can put it in the paper all you want, but if people don’t listen to that message, it’s our responsibility to make the roads safe.”

Along with RIDE programs, Calder says the force is finding and training more officers to become drug recognition experts. These officers are able to detect impairments that may not be as obvious as the smell of alcohol on a person’s breath.

“They’re totally qualified to make assessments,” Calder says. “They can almost know what kind of drugs cause what kind of impairments.”

However, the DRPS would rather not run into you behind the wheel after you’ve been drinking, and Calder says the number one thing to do is plan ahead for a ride home if you know you’ll be drinking.

“By the time you start drinking, your planning goes out the window,” he says.

And whether it’s alcohol or drugs, the potential consequences are the same. Under the Ontario Traffic Act, a drinking and driving criminal offence leads to an immediate 90-day license suspension, with the driver’s vehicle impounded for a week.