Skip to main content

MADD hopes smashed car display will serve as sobering reminder of impaired driving dangers

(Lisa Risom/CTV News) (Lisa Risom/CTV News)
Share
PRINCE ALBERT -

People headed to the lakes this summer on Highway 2 will get a graphic message about drinking and driving courtesy of MADD’s smashed vehicle display.

“We hope that people will see it and that people will stop and think about the consequences of driving while impaired,” said the MADD Prince Albert Chapter director Karen Anthony-Burns.

The display uses a car from a real-life crash. It’s placed in the ditch, flipped on its roof, with a crashed cab with orange pylons around it.

MADD Prince Albert, Prince Albert Police, SGI and the City of Prince Albert are partners on the campaign and get sponsors to put messages on the car to remind the public about the importance of always driving sober.

Karen Anthony-Burns says the vehicle is a sobering visual demonstration to drivers of what can happen when someone chooses to drive impaired.

Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS) Inspector Brent McDonald says SGI’s Report Impaired Drivers (RID) program, where the public can anonymously report suspected impaired drivers has been an effective tool for taking impaired drivers off the road.

He says the number of alcohol-impaired driving charges is on par with last year’s statistics but the number of deaths for impaired driving has declined in recent years.

“The charges are still not where we want to see them they’re higher than we want to see them the fact that we are laying those charges and not seeing the deaths is the positive we can take away from it,” said McDonald.

He says the provincial-funded Combined Traffic Enforcement Unit and partnerships with MADD and SGI have helped enforcement efforts.

PAPS had over 500 RID complaints in 2021, and about 150 in the first four months of 2022. PAPS recorded 105 impaired driving investigations in 2021, and 23 to date.

“If you drive impaired, you will be caught. The police will catch you. We have the tools to detect consumption of alcohol and drugs,” said McDonald.

The car will be placed at various locations throughout the City of Prince Albert from May to September.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Stay Connected