Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Saskatchewan needs to have tougher penalties to stop what it calls a pervasive culture of impaired driving.
Wendell Waldron, a community leader with MADD in Regina, notes that a second offence currently carries a three-year licence suspension. Waldron suggested people shouldn’t be allowed to drive for 10 years if they’re caught driving drunk a second time.
“If they’ve gotten a second DUI, clearly the first one didn’t impact them enough to change their decision-making moving forward,” he said Thursday.
Police need more resources to tackle the problem, said Waldron, who added that officers should do more sobriety checks because “the fear of being caught” can stop people who’ve been drinking from getting behind the wheel.
Don McMorris, the former deputy premier of Saskatchewan, was fined on Wednesday and lost his licence for a year after being caught driving with 2 1/2 times the legal amount of alcohol in his bloodstream.
WATCH ABOVE: Former deputy premier Don McMorris has pleaded guilty to drunk driving. Last month, the former cabinet minister was pulled over on Highway 1 for impaired driving at 11:45 a.m. Today, he appeared in provincial court and received his sentence. Christa Dao was in the courthoom.
McMorris said he was “extremely embarrassed and ashamed.”
READ MORE: Former Sask. deputy premier Don McMorris pleads guilty to drunk driving
Premier Brad Wall, who said he was “very disappointed” when McMorris was charged, responded to a call on social media Thursday for his government to do more to stop impaired driving.
READ MORE: One-fifth of Sask. residents approve drinking and driving over short distances: Mainstreet poll
“Made recent changes cracking down on DUIs but asked Attorney Gen/SGI Min to find more options to ensure safe streets,” Wall responded on Twitter.
Statistics Canada said there were 683 police-reported impaired driving incidents per 100,000 population in Saskatchewan in 2011.
The Canadian average was 262.
Other high-profile cases in the province include a crash that killed a family of four in Saskatoon in January.
Catherine McKay pleaded guilty to four counts of impaired driving causing death and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Court heard the 49-year-old had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit at the time of the crash that killed Jordan and Chanda Van de Vorst, their five-year-old daughter Kamryn and her two-year-old brother Miguire.
READ MORE: Saskatoon family reeling after fatal crash claims four lives
In April, a Moose Jaw man was sentenced to four years in prison for a drunk-driving crash that killed three of his friends. Another man survived the accident, but spent three months in a coma.
READ MORE: Impaired Saskatchewan driver who killed three friends sentenced to four years
A 19-year-old man was charged this week with impaired driving in a fatal crash north of Regina on Sunday.
READ MORE: Regina man charged with impaired driving in death of Tanner Kaufmann given bail
And a 43-year-old man faces several charges that include impaired driving, failure to remain at an accident and criminal negligence causing death after a five-year-old boy was killed while riding his bike in Big River last month.
READ MORE: Boy killed following hit and run in Big River, Sask.
Waldron, who became involved with MADD after being rear-ended by a drunk driver, said the McMorris situation underscores the bigger problem in Saskatchewan.
“You notice, you go to social events, and you see people drinking and then you see people getting in their vehicles and just driving away.
“It’s pervasive. It’s everywhere. People don’t take the issue as seriously as they should.”
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