Drinking alcohol or taking drugs and then getting behind the wheel is just about the stupidest thing a person can do.
Not only are you risking your own well being, but you’re putting the lives of your passengers and innocent bystanders at risk.
Yet, even after years of admonitions from the police and countless presentations by crash survivors whose lives have been irreparably altered by drunk or high drivers, people still choose to drive impaired.
Saturday night’s check stop, run jointly by the RCMP and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) was a prime example of what may be needed to get the point across that impaired driving is unacceptable in any and all circumstances.
Maybe having children deliver the message about the dangers of impaired driving will drive the point home more effectively. Maybe if a father is pulled over and the child delivering the message is his son or daughter’s age will make that man think twice about drinking and driving when he’s out with his buddies.
Or what about a fellow teenager being pulled over? What effect will having her best friend talk about the dangers have? It’s saddening to think that in this day and age we still need to make it known that drinking and driving is a reprehensible activity.
One positive among many to draw from the check stop is that young people were the ones delivering the message.
Perhaps that’s what’s needed, to have the future generations take the steps necessary to bring about the future they want to see — a future where impaired driving is completely eradicated because people have come to their senses about how unnecessary it is to drive if you’ve been drinking or taking drugs.
