Drunk drivers are dumb, deadly

Nothing ever happens in isolation. Keep that in mind as you read this.

A report this week from the Kings County RCMP said there has been alarming increase in the number of impairing drivers on our roads. In fact, Cst. Les Kakonyi says 83 impaired driving charges have been laid since April 1, including 11 on a recent weekend.

That’s pretty bad, but dig this; in comparison, there were 95 charges laid in all of 2007.

Sure, police are getting tougher on impaired drivers, so small wonder the numbers are high. Spotchecks are frequent locally and average citizens aren’t as reluctant as perhaps they were in the past to report anyone who appears to be driving drunk.

But there’s a ton of uncertainty in the world right now, too, and when times are bleak I think it’s safe to say that people tend to drink more, and quite often to excess.

Alcohol has long been a salve to soothe society’s ills (good, bad or indifferent) and when money’s tight, gas prices are through the roof and nothing’s going right, it’s possible more people are getting loaded, going for a toot and possibly endangering lives.

It’s not that they don’t realize the danger. Everyone does. The truth is, though, people are sometimes selfish and many have a don’t-give-a-damn attitude that suggests they’re going to do what they want simply because they feel they deserve a break.

To me, there’s a huge difference between needing a little down time and getting behind the wheel of a vehicle thinking you’re sober when you’re not.

However, there is some good news. Kakonyi said, “if you’re out on the road and you’re drinking and driving, the chances are you’re going to get caught.” Amen to that, brother.

Especially now, because school’s out soon and all of sudden kids will want to be everywhere and parents are tasked with ferrying little Johnny or Susie to the beach, soccer practice, baseball games, movie night – you name it.

And, judging from the RCMP data, there’s no shortage of folks on the road who think it’s okay to drink and drive. That’s scary at any time, but even more so now that there’s likely to be a lot more local traffic.

Drunk drivers are a perennial problem and there seems to be few constraints sufficient to deter them. As our Court Report indicates, fines for drinking and driving or having care and control of a motor vehicle while intoxicated are pretty stiff, yet you’ll notice that our weekly log is packed regularly with offenders of every stripe.

I wonder how a person drinking and driving would react if they knew their car could be seized if caught? Police have the power to do that and I don’t believe many people are aware of this.

The bottom line is lives are at stake. I don’t want to be on the road this summer with my wife and kids and have someone who didn’t bother to take two seconds to consider the consequences plow into me and possibly kill or injure my family or me.

And that’s all a person needs to do, really; just take a second to consider the life-altering and shattering consequences of driving drunk.

If more people did that I think the RCMP wouldn’t have such dire numbers to report and we could all feel a little bit safer now that summer’s here and the living should be easy.