For many years now, the campaign against drinking and driving has been relentless, blanketing the media in every form, print and broadcast, not to mention the ongoing coverage of the carnage and devastation caused by drunk drivers.
 Just like with smoking in public, the work has been long and arduous in creating the belief in society that it is simply unacceptable behaviour to drive while impaired. To reinforce this, the penalties for impaired driving have been getting tougher and tougher.
 In Saskatchewan, the first conviction for driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08, or failure to provide a breath sample, results in a suspension of one’s driver’s licence for a year, and fines start at $600, with no maximum. Subsequent offences will result in a three-year suspension on a second offence, and after further offences, a five-year suspension.
 So, with all of this pressure, one would think this would make a difference and that people would stop driving drunk — and then, on Sunday, a major tragedy unfolded near Saskatoon as a woman who was allegedly impaired hit a vehicle that killed an entire family. The mother and father and two-year-old son died at the scene or soon after, and their five-year-old daughter later died in hospital.
 This was a needless tragedy, taking a young couple and their children, and ending their lives in a violent collision and breaking the hearts of their family and friends, and of people throughout the country who mourn this tragic loss of life on one of our highways.
 What more can be done than is already being done? The woman involved now faces four charges of impaired driving causing death; if she is convicted, she will very likely face jail time — but it will not erase this tragedy, and will not bring this beautiful young family back.
Those children will now never grow up to live and to love and achieve great things with their lives. Their futures, and that of their parents, were erased in an instant, because someone who ingested alcohol thought she could still drive.
The efforts to continue to get the word out should continue, as clearly there is still much work to be done. A perusal of the complaints investigated by the Weyburn Police Service each week includes many instances of impaired driving, so obviously some people are not getting the message. Please, let’s not have another tragedy, but take a lesson from this and vow to never repeat it. — Greg NikkelÂ
