Is the Okanagan Canada’s hotbed for drunk driving?

KELOWNA – On average, 29 people in the Southern Interior are killed every year by impaired motorists. According to Statistics Canada, Kelowna ranked highest in the country for impaired driving incidents, with 583 per 100,000 residents in 2011.

They’re alarming statistics, but RCMP and other groups in the region are working hard to reduce them.

Provincially, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) reports a 52 per cent reduction in the number of alcohol-related deaths on B.C. highways since 2010, something they attribute to the work of officers catching so many impaired drivers. Eighty-one police officers from throughout the Interior were recognized Wednesday afternoon for going above and beyond to get drunk drivers off of our roads.

Some local RCMP members believe high impaired rates in Kelowna are simply because they do a better job detaining those drivers than other jurisdictions. However, Michael Humer, Medical Director of Trauma at Kelowna General Hospital, disagrees.

“The police said that perhaps we are better at capturing these people but I actually believe that this is a risky place to drive,” says Humer.

“I’ve lived in many communities and I know it’s a dangerous place to drive.”

Some Kelowna residents like Jeff Mitchell agree.

“You get a lot of people coming here to party, with so many events going on,” says Mitchell. “It’s an important area that you want to crack down, on so I think you need to be tough on that.”

Wednesday’s award ceremony was part of “Alexa’s Team“, a group created after a four-year-old girl was struck and killed by a drunk driver in the lower mainland in 2008.