A hearse, an ambulance and a fire truck lined up with police cruisers as a backdrop Friday under the Blue Water Bridge in Point Edward as Lambton OPP and Sarnia police marked the start of this year’s holiday RIDE campaign.
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“Pick your ride,” said Erin Pollard, president of MADD Sarnia-Lambton, who spoke at the event. “Which way do you want to get home?”
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Officers with both police services will be setting up Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) checkpoints in the weeks ahead to discourage and catch impaired drivers.
“There are many ways to get home this holiday season,” Pollard said. “Make the right choices.”
Insp. Chris Avery, commander of the Lambton OPP detachment, said the number of impaired driving charges in Lambton so far in 2023 is up 37 per cent compared to the five-year average.
There has been a total of 208 impaired driving charges so far in 2023 and “I find it frightening that 40 per cent, nearly half, of those drivers showed alcohol levels exceeding twice the legal limit,” Avery said.
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Families and friends will be together in the coming weeks for holiday gatherings that can include consuming alcohol or drugs, Avery said.
“When it’s time to go home, it’s essential you make the right choice, the safe choice, and make plans to get home that do not include getting behind the wheel,” he said. “Deaths from impaired driving are entirely preventable.”
Staff Sgt. Jim McCabe, with Sarnia police, said it has already begun setting up RIDE checkpoints in the city.
“Our job is to educate the motoring public about the dangers and consequences of impaired driving, and also to eliminate the human and financial costs of impaired driving in our community,” McCabe said.
“All police services dedicate a significant amount of time and resources in a combined effort to take impaired drivers off the road,” Avery said. “We are united against impaired driving.”
Pollard said MADD Sarnia-Lambton’s annual holiday white cross display won’t happen this year.
The large number of wooden crosses the group sets up at a different location each holiday season as a reminder of the toll of impaired driving have reached an age and condition where they couldn’t be set up this year, Pollard said.
“We are getting them remade” but they weren’t ready for this holiday season, she said.
“They will be up next year.”
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