‘I did everything that I could to stop impaired driving’

BY ASHLEY THOMPSON

Kings County Advertiser

Members of the Kings Crime Prevention Association met Nov. 24 to discuss matters of public safety, and left inspired by speaker Susan MacAskill.

MacAskill, the Chapter Services Manager for MADD Canada’s Atlantic Region, was pushed to take action after her father was killed by an impaired driver in 1993 in a head-on collision. It took rescue workers an hour to remove him from his vehicle, he was transported to Halifax, where he spent 10 days in intensive care; before his family was asked for permission to remove his life support. “That was the toughest decision I had ever had to make; if somebody that important to me would live or die.”

But the pain did not end there for her family. The impaired driver was sentenced to serve two concurrent sentences: one of three-and-a-half years for killing her father, and another two-year sentence for injuring her stepmother. “If the court process is not going the way you would like it to go, that can intensify the pain and grief. You feel like the ones who are in a position to decide what’s going to happen to this individual don’t seem to be taking into consideration the significance of your loss,” said MacAskill.

She asked to file a victim impact statement 15 months after the sentencing, but was told the offender had been granted an early release seven months prior. She said this was the breaking point that motivated her fight drinking and driving. “Impaired driving deaths are 100 per cent preventable. Nobody needs to be injured or killed on our highways because of drugs and alcohol.”

By June of 1996, MacAskill was on MADD Canada’s national board of directors after working with RCMP to establish a MADD chapter in the Annapolis Valley.

While progress has been made through campaigns aimed to educate the public on the severity of MADD’s mission, preventable deaths continue. “On average, four people die everyday in Canada and approximately 207 are injured - so there’s still much work to do,” said MacAskill.

MADD Canada can not reduce these numbers without the public’s cooperation in such initiatives as Campaign 911, which asks motorists to dial 911 and report individuals they suspect are driving while impaired; and Project Red Ribbon. “The ribbon stands for two things: it’s a symbol that you will drive sober and drive safe if you display one on your vehicle, and it also serves as a memorial tribute to those who have been injured or killed in an impaired driving crash.”

In 2000, MADD started holding the provinces and territories accountable for injuries and deaths caused by impaired driving. It reviewed the Motor Vehicle Acts and legislation of every province and territory, and assigned a letter grade based on enforcement, impoundment, ignition interlock, graduated licenses and insurance. In “Rating the Provinces,” ranked Nova Scotia’s Motor Vehicle Act (2000) third best in the country, with a C-. In 2003, N.S. maintained the same score, but dropped to fifth overall.

MacAskill explained, while other provinces had made significant changes, N. S., scoring 11th in the country with a D in 2006, failed to make improvements. She predicts Nova Scotians will improve when the 2009 report is released Dec. 2, as the province has made legislative changes that grant harsher penalties.

For MacAskill, working with MADD is a coping method that encourages her to embody characteristics her father most admired in a person. “I do what I do to honour my Dad because I believe I’m going to see him again someday and, when I do, I’m gonna be able to say to him that I did everything that I could to stop impaired driving.”

WEBLINKS

www.madd.ca