RIDE Program Out In Full Force On Holiday
Posted December 31, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Every year it’s the same story: police warn drivers of getting behind the while intoxicated on New Year’s Eve, most people heed the warning, and a few others ruin it for themselves, and sometimes some very unfortunate families.
This year promises to be no different, though cops around the GTA are elevating their efforts to try to minimize impaired driving and catch those doing it before they can do any damage.
“The message is not getting out to everybody because it is such a preventable crime,” said Lee Bishop, RIDE coordinator for Toronto Police. “All you have to do is not get in behind a car once you’ve been drinking.”
It’s advice one driver on the 401 Sunday night probably could’ve used before he allegedly slammed into the back of a fire truck that had stopped to help with another incident, injuring himself.
But that sort of accident is of the lighter variety when compared with the tragedy endured by Carolyn Swinson, who lost both her father and son to accidents blamed on drunk drivers, 12 years apart.
“I hate it,” she said Monday, when asked how reports of drunk driving charges affect her. “Every single time I hear of another person being killed in an impaired driving crash, my stomach turns over.”
This New Year’s Toronto Police are hoping to limit the threat of further pain by committing more officers and more hours to RIDE checks around the GTA. They’re also taking the checks to side streets where sneakier drivers might expect to elude any such attention.
Police will also be keeping an eye on “repeat” offenders, who are blamed for more than half of all impaired driving arrests.
“We are still seeing a problem with repeat drivers,” Bishop said. “Drivers who have gotten away with it before and think they can get away with it again.”
Police also recommend those with plans to indulge leave ample time before getting back behind the wheel, since they say, not a year goes by that someone isn’t arrested for impaired driving the next day.
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