Whitehorse Daily Star

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DRIVE SAFE - Justice Minister Mike Nixon, Yukon RCMP Chief Superintendent Peter Clark, Cpl. Shawn Pollard, MADD Whitehorse president Amanda Price, and MADD Whitehorse vice-president Daniela Martinson (left to right) gear up for a night of fighting impaired driving. Photos courtesy RCMP

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GOOD EVENING - Cpl. Shawn Pollard (left) and Justice Minister Mike Nixon conduct checkstops on Hamilton Boulevard earlier this month. Photos courtesy RCMP

‘You’d think people would clue in’

It’s 6:40 p.m. on a Friday.

By Rhiannon Russell on December 19, 2014

It’s 6:40 p.m. on a Friday.

Const. Shean Kidd sits in a white SUV in front of the Whitehorse RCMP detachment, ready for a long, cold night of traffic checkstops.

Over the radio, a staticky voice reports something unintelligible (to a citizen ear) near Walmart.

“That’s an impaired right there,” Kidd says.

That driver will later be issued a 24-hour driving suspension.

Kidd pulls out of the parking lot, driving around downtown with his eyes peeled before heading to the first checkstop site of the night.

“We’re looking for anything out of the ordinary,” he says.

That could be someone driving without headlights on, nicking a curb, forgetting to signal, or driving with windshield wipers on when it’s not snowing.

Roundabouts can be a dead giveaway because of the co-ordination they require: “You’re asking people to turn left, then right, then left again,” Kidd explains.

Police nab impaired drivers at all times of the day – not just after the bars close in the wee hours of the morning. Kidd says they’ll catch just as many on the lunch hour, or in the morning, when people are still drunk from the night before.

On this December night, Kidd and other officers in the RCMP “M” Division’s traffic unit, members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Yukon’s chief coroner Kirsten Macdonald, and bylaw officers assemble at Hamilton Boulevard and Falcon Drive.

The police park on both sides of the roads, blue and red lights flashing, and lay red flares along the asphalt. They don yellow, reflective jackets and fur hats.

It’s a cold night, but that much colder when you’re essentially stationary for hours.

“This is a pretty easy place to spot impaired drivers,” Kidd says. RCMP arrested and charged two people here last weekend.

Traffic flows pretty easily through the checkstop.

Kidd and the other officers take turns approaching the vehicles, leaning in at the driver’s side window, shining a flashlight inside: “Good evening. How are you?”

This checkstop is uneventful. People are friendly and patient, smiling at the officers and answering their questions.

One man says he’s on his way home from a staff party, but he didn’t drink.

In the winter, the officers say it’s usually obvious if someone’s had a few. In a warm car, the smell of liquor will pour right out into the cold air once the driver lowers the window.

When police have suspicions, they’ll pull someone over and administer an approved screening device – a small stick that, after a driver blows into it, registers a preliminary reading of alcohol in the blood.

“That’s just screening,” says Cpl. Shawn Pollard, head of the traffic unit. “It’s not what we call an evidentiary instrument. So that gives us grounds to arrest. That’s our reasonable and probable grounds to believe that you have committed the offence of driving over .08 (blood-alcohol content).”

A breathalyzer test at the detachment would follow.

But while any reading over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood can lead to a criminal charge of driving over the legal limit, Pollard says you can be charged with impaired driving even if your blood-alcohol content is below that.

Particularly if police have “driving evidence” – like if they see you swerving on the roads and stumbling as you get out of your car. They could also give you a 24-hour driving suspension.

Everyone handles alcohol differently. For a small person, two to three beers could be enough to cause intoxication. That’s the danger in thinking a couple of drinks are OK.

“If you’re going to drive, don’t drink,” Pollard says. “Period. Zero.”

Drivers at this Friday night checkstop seem to have followed this directive. One officer administers a couple of roadside tests, but no charges are laid.

The crew packs up after an hour or so and heads to the turnoff for the Mayo Road.

Here, again, people seem to be on good behaviour.

“I’ve been sober for 12 years,” says one grinning man in a pick-up truck. “I’m just coming back from my Christmas party and, lo and behold, I’m the designated driver.”

Kidd pulls over a young-looking boy driving a blue pickup to check his licence, but it’s valid.

Everyone is still pleasant – thanking the MADD representatives for the red scarves they’re handing out to sober drivers and waving to police.

“Most people don’t want a drunk driver on the road any more than we do,” Kidd says.

Then, at around 8:30 p.m., it’s on to the third stop at the base of Two Mile Hill.

This location has the most traffic – vehicles whizzing down the hill quickly slow and form a line.

“I don’t drink and drive anymore,” one man tells police.

As a car turns the corner coming down the hill, an officer shouts, “Impaired coming up!” The headlights aren’t on.

Kidd approaches the vehicle, a young man behind the wheel, and asks him why his headlights aren’t on. The driver looks confused, then switches them on. Kidd asks him to pull over.

“He’s sober,” Kidd says as he walks over to car at the side of the road.

But he learns the man’s plate is unregistered, his driver’s licence and registration have expired, and he has no proof of insurance. Kidd gives the driver a ticket and calls a tow truck. The man insists on walking home.

During the rest of that night and the following one, RCMP give six people 24-hour suspensions, and charge two people with impaired driving. One was also charged with uttering death threats to police, Pollard says.

Yukon RCMP have ramped up their checkstops during the holiday season, as they do every year. Since the beginning of the month, Pollard says they’ve yielded about three charges per weekend.

This is on par with past years, he says, adding he finds the lack of change disappointing.

“You’d think people would clue in. They still think they can get away with it.

“It’s the culture. Drinking is a culture in the Yukon, and then obviously they think it’s OK (to drive). They don’t understand the consequences of it.”

Pollard has worked as a traffic cop in other jurisdictions and says the problem is worse here. The Yukon has the highest impaired-driving rates in Canada, he says.

Through enforcement and education – MADD’s Project Red Ribbon campaign and the PARTY program (Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth) – the RCMP hope to change that.

Fighting impaired driving is a national, territorial and local priority, Pollard says.

“We’re not going to quit. This priority is going to go on year-round, and if you’re going to drink and drive, you’re going to get caught.”

He asks that people who see impaired drivers call 911 and report it.

“It’s an emergency.”

Comments (8)

Up 6 Down 4

Thomas Brewer on Dec 24, 2014 at 12:32 pm

"Kidd pulls over a young-looking boy driving a blue pickup to check his licence, but it’s valid."

Yeah, that right there isn't legal.

Up 18 Down 3

Just Say'in on Dec 21, 2014 at 2:41 am

@June…. They have had the interlock devices that require a breath sample before they will start, for many years now.

Up 17 Down 21

June jackson on Dec 20, 2014 at 11:44 pm

Max mad: bottom line on your comment..you want to drink and drive and don't want to pay any penalties for it should something happen when you have had that "one" drink....only had one seems to be famous last words huh? And there are at least 3 others who want to drink and drive as well..

Up 29 Down 13

Mark Southerland on Dec 20, 2014 at 2:55 pm

The drinking and driving and impaired driving culture in Yukon is pretty bad.
The number of dangerous driving infractions (ie blatantly running red lights) is also very bad.

I suggest using a New York model where even minor driving infractions is not permitted. It's time to devote more effort to deter impaired driving and to charge people for driving infractions.

A ghost car with a camera could catch the outlandish number or people running red lights in this town. It's pretty clear that more effort is required to make our streets safe day and night.

Up 31 Down 17

Drive Sober! on Dec 20, 2014 at 1:38 pm

Yes sir, the more check stops the better. I can't believe the entitlement of some people who believe that somehow or other this is against their rights. I have a right to expect everyone else that is driving on the road and is sober and able to drive in a safe manner. With that said, I cannot believe the bad drivers in this little town, I will admit that driving on Hamilton is a freeway and I am alright with the speeding there, what bugs me is when I see people fly down neighborhood streets with no regard to walkers, kids playing or anything for that matter. Our society is going to sh--!!

Up 28 Down 52

Max Mack on Dec 19, 2014 at 6:06 pm

I am one of those that is opposed to the new "standard" of "impaired" at 0.05. The evidence that 0.5 causes impairment is dubious, at best. MADD and the RCMP has become organizations run by prohibitionist zealots, and won't be happy till the "standard" is 0.0 - as though anyone who drinks even the smallest amount is jeopardizing public safety.

I am also opposed to the idea that police should have the authority to pull you over without probable cause (as in "road-side safety checks"). We've been bullied into buying into the program, but I don't appreciate being pulled over and forced to blow simply because I have a beard and drive a truck.

Up 48 Down 25

Groucho d'North on Dec 19, 2014 at 4:31 pm

Bravo! Thanks to the RCMP, MADD and all the public who call in to report impaired drivers. Keep up the very good work.
Maybe its time to start identifying the offenders who live and work among us but secretly put the community at risk due to their irresponsibility.
Expose these criminals for who they are.

Up 42 Down 33

June Jackson on Dec 19, 2014 at 4:05 pm

We don't have very harsh penalties here for impaired driving. Some places require a DUI to install an ignition interlock device, a driver must check the breathalyzer or his/her car will not start..China..if you cause an accident while impaired, 15 years in prison, if someone dies.. you could get the death penalty yourself. In France, they seize your car, take your license, stick you in jail and you get a fine.. Just to name a few..

Maybe the Yukon is the only place still fooling around with impaired drivers. Other countries also use a .05..while we use a .08.. Perhaps, before it's your daughter laying dead in the road, or your son wrapped around a post bleeding from his eyeballs.. (yup.. trying to be graphic) we could look at what other countries are doing that works because we still have drunk and impaired drivers and we need to get serious about stopping them.

http://www.drink-drive-lose.com/Article.aspx?a=87,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_driving_law_by_country

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