Even our Canadian evangelical Christian Missionary Alliance Church Prime Minister Stephen Harper is already known to be a liar so why not anyone else? Cops lie too and often.. so does the RCMP.. https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/mounties-ask-b-c-court-to-bar-taser-inquiry-from-finding-misconduct/
Look at this, due to the undeniable Recession, budget and tax cuts, Municipalities across Canada have been cutting back even on their services, snow clearing now too, which has been leading up to more car accidents, and cause the police cannot tell the truth about their employers, the police now lie, and divert the truth, saying that speeding vehicles were the cause of most of the accidents. In reality now also speeding also still is not the main reasons for accidents but driving while impaired is.. http://postedat.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/drivers-will-face-significant-insurance-rates/
Note this important brief introduction to road safety .. Yes you always do have to drive safely, in control, not impaired as well and yes there are many, many different factors that now can cause a vehicular, automotive accident, including but not limited to the actual daily road conditions, even the type of tires you have .. for it is a fact that good tires lead to a safer drive, and so does a 4 wheel drive. Next when you start to first drive at any day do first immediately test the road condition by coming to a planned sudden stop at a slow speed too, and see firsthand how your car reacts accordingly.. then next do use this experience to set how you will drive the rest of the day too. And no matter what car, or tires you have, or who is the driver, if you do hit a patch of black ice, due clearly to the failure of others to apply salt and gravel on the icy / snowy road, it can be very, very hazardous now too. Give them a fine, ticket, they firstly do deserve it too. And hypothetical if you do not drive at all you are less likely to have an accident, assuming another driver does not hit you while walking.. SEE ALSO https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/research-on-real-world-behavior-crash-factors
It also seems that the statistical numbers for drunk drivers, accidents too are still startling, too high — and split it seems almost evenly for inside the main cities and in the outlying area where there is less policing too. — While maybe the police, RCMP may have a strong feel for the trends on the roads, for speeding, accidents, drunk driving and the impaired numbers maybe are still not causing the police great concern, due to their own priorities and even due to the differing, often in a not fully reliable way that the Police, accident data is collected year to year, Canada wide now too, still the actual Police statistical values, comparisons are very difficult, erroneous still and these statistics reporting they need to be seriously improved, and the Police themselves even better managed.
Now I do often rightfully complain about things that matter, are important to all of the citizens, such as the unacceptable abuse of Consumers, citizens by large or small corporations.. or even by civil and public servants, so called professionals, bad cops now too, or by pretentious politicians for that matter. Now we here firstly need to look firstly at the meaning of two words, “Minister”, and “Service.”. while to me these words are clearly simple to understand, their meaning as well.. a Minister is elected to serve the citizens, not himself or his party.. Now the same thing applies to the police they are here to serve the citizens, not themselves or their superiors, or the political masters. A Minister still also is not our Lord, or Master, and we the citizens not here to serve him or to serve any other civil or public servants, professionals now as well.
And do you really think that the the majority of the police who now are one of the highest paid professionals are firstly doing their Jobs cause they really firstly serving, are looking after the good welfare of the citizens as they often lie to us and claim they do .. and not cause of the monetary job, fringe benefits ? I would not bet on it not even on your life..
It is an admitted fact we have hired too many bad police officers Canada wide, even in the RCMP.. because exisiting bad mangers hire bad people next too.. thus the police recruitment , hiring, supervision approach stinks badly..
“In reality the too often self serving, money hungry, promotional and empire oriented police, and their superiors, bad justice ministers, bad politicians really do not care about the citizens good welfare but only their own”
Hey also now you get unionized and you set up a union to protect the workers from corporate exploitation but even here is is much too easy to exploit the system, it is still only common sense that it is cheaper to buy of a union leader and exploit the workers.. now the same corrupt practice principle applies to legislators, commissions, civil and public servants, regulating bodies, or what ever.. and this is still why justice often fails, cause some people take bribes….
Here there are 2 main concerns, issues even related TO ACCIDENTS, DRIVERS
1: The rising alcohol consumption, and the rising taxpayer’s costs of alcohol related sickness, accidents
2: The still inadequate police, RCMP response to impaired drivers, year around.
Now I have said it for over 3 decades in writing to all too so now call it what you want but police services generally it is not about public safety, for it is a self employment, empire building, a false money grab, revenue generation, hidden taxes.. for if the cops, the mad RCMP were now really worried about public safety THEY WOULD FIRSTLY ARREST THEIR OWN KIND, THE BAD COPS WHO OFTEN DRIVE HOME DRUNK AFTER WORK, COMING HOME FROM THE POLICE TAVERN, and they would ALSO FIRSTLY go after the people who drive reckless, who fail to stop at the stop signs, or the traffic stop lights, and go seriously after the impaired drunken drivers, deal with the unsafe cars whose brakes are squealing cause they need to be repaired.. etc. Cops , civil and public servants too often become perverse persons, unacceptable bullies still too. You and I still do not have to accept such crap.
Funny majority of the accidents still do happen outside of the city but most traffic cops are in the city still too..
Paradoxically, despite all the dangers, warnings , most people continue to drink beyond safe levels on a weekly basis that is more than 14 units of alcohol for women and 21 units for men. At the heart of this strange contradiction is a false belief, best encapsulated by the former Prime Minister in his introduction to the first national alcohol strategy. In the document, Tony Blair assured readers that “alcohol misuse by a small minority” was responsible for the rising levels of social and health harm. In short, problem drinkers are “other people”, spoiling it for the rest of us. In reality this is not so.. Drinking alcohol has become too common amongst too many people. There is “no failsafe guide” on staying under the legal alcohol limit. It’s also worrying that motorists are continuing to ignore the drink-drive message.
“Reality too many of the binge drinkers., if not already are likely to become hard core alcoholics. The real problem of alcohol misuse was much wider than previously thought We are drinking more now than we have ever done since before the First World War. We must transform attitudes towards alcohol. Alcohol, though legal and embedded in our society, is no ordinary commodity. It is very harmful .. never mind the lies, spins, distortions of the alcohol industries, alcoholics themselves.
Attitudes To Alcohol Must Change. A health Minister has called for a change in attitudes towards alcohol by both the public and the drinks industry all year now too. Statistics which show an increase of in the number of people binge drinking, getting drunk and that the statistics also show that we still have a long way to deal with this major problem. 81% of people who choose to drink are still exceeding the recommended daily limits. The cost of alcohol misuse to our society is very real. In just over 10 years, there has been a startling 86% increase in the numbers of people dying due to alcohol related harm. “Now, more than ever, we should all be working together to really tackle this issue head on and I believe the drinks industry has a key role to play. Supermarkets in particular sell alcohol far too cheaply. I am extremely disappointed that despite having met with each of the major supermarkets, and received their personal assurances that they take this matter extremely seriously, those words have not as yet translated into meaningful action. “On the contrary, they are flooded with festive drinks promotions that will only encourage people to indulge further in binge drinking. This, in my view, is totally unacceptable. Action speaks louder than words. On this occasion, profit is being put before public health.” “The harsh reality is that although alcohol misuse is known to be damaging and harmful to health and well-being
, many people still drink to excess. This must change, and in this respect we all have a collective responsibility in tackling this issue – individuals, society, government and the drinks industry alike.” http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/63/27952/attitudes-alcohol-must-change.html http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/63/27943/northern-ireland-reports-adult-drinking-patterns.html
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of all is the frightening age shift in alcohol use. A generation or two ago, the first experiments with binge drinking were at university or during National Service. The “victims” of those generations who started drinking in their late teens and 20s were perhaps better able to cope with the consequences than 10-14 year-olds today.
The international evidence is quite clear that the health consequences of alcohol misuse are closely linked to a nation’s total alcohol consumption and the main drivers of this are price and availability.
For liver disease and other medical conditions, there can be a time lag of 10 or more years from the onset of serious drinking to reaping the consequences. Now we are seeing patients, particularly women, in their 20s with advanced alcoholic liver disease – a real tragedy for their family as well as themselves.”
Holiday stress, along with getting laid off, has caused too many a person to start drinking heavily and this situation is not unusual.. Sadly when most people think about the upcoming holidays, they think about friends, family, food and good cheer. And for many people, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are still particularly difficult. Financial problems are tough to handle for most people at any time, but they can seem overwhelming during this season of giving. Due to unresolved stress Feelings of loneliness, isolation and despair may also intensify but alcohol and drugs are never the answer still. Unfortunately, your friend’s Many people turn to alcohol falsely believing that it helps them to relax and to cope with stress and worry. And because many people think that New Year’s Eve and similar occasions must always be celebrated with alcohol, it’s often readily available, providing another excuse to drink. It actually will likely cause more problems, and not effectively deal with the ones still not resolved Many people next tend to go to excess, extremes, and drinking larger amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of a deadly form of liver damage called cirrhosis, heart disease, some types of cancer and injuries. And even moderate drinking can often have harmful consequences in the wrong setting, such as one should not drink and drive, and drinking alcohol during a pregnancy may seriously harm a developing baby. Alcohol dependence, also called alcoholism, often means that if a person tries to stop or cut back on drinking, he or she may experience anxiety, sweating, trembling, trouble sleeping, nausea and vomiting. Drinking can be risky even for people who aren’t dependent on it. It may seriously still interfere with sleep and productivity, strain close relationships and get in the way of spending time with loved ones. It not only also puts the drinker at risk for becoming alcohol dependent as well as developing alcohol-related health problems. Too many people who really do now suffer from a drinking problem claim still don’t believe that anything is wrong. They faley try to justify that they’re drinking to cope with a particularly stressful time. In their mind, suppposedly the basic stress is the unresolved problem, not the drinking. They say they can stop drinking whenever they want, but they don’t. Two wrongs do nto make one right here too. Denial is a common obstacle that prevents many people from seeking help.
More alcohol use is a concern for health-care professionals, since it means more deaths, illness, injuries and hospital visits, meaning added strain on the health-care system, and additional cost. “There’s 60 different ways in which alcohol can cause premature death and illness,” Too many cops are alcoholic themselves these days it seems too. Showing justice and compassion is rightfully prosecuting all of the guilty alcohol and drug offenders. Now we know that more people have accident due to road rage, impaired driving, driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol over speeding too and we still do need to review how much time and resources do the police deal with that firstly? ”
Despite plunging sales in almost every sector, alcohol sales are on the rise in Ontario, British Columbia and in other provinces over last year . If you drive at twice the legal alcohol limit you are at least 30 times more likely to cause a road crash than a driver who hasn’t been drinking. Alcohol abuse is a problem that is expected to become increasingly common as baby boomers, who have been found to drink more than previous generations, reach age 65 and beyond. “A lot of folks over 50 are already dealing with diseases associated with aging and medication use that can result in possible complications and drug interactions. And older people who abuse alcohol are consuming an inordinate amount of calories that can displace important nutrients.” It is just a fact, common sense that “even at lower levels of consumption, alcohol can be problematic for older people.” “Because of an increased sensitivity to alcohol and decreased tolerance as one ages, lower amounts of alcohol can have a bigger effect,” he said. “Older people get into trouble with doses of alcohol that wouldn’t be a problem with a younger person.” Immoderate consumption of alcohol — more than three drinks a day — can be hazardous for people of all ages, but especially so for the elderly, who reach higher levels of blood alcohol faster and maintain them longer than younger people. And people who have ailments, like chronic liver disease, or take medications, like psychoactive drugs, that would render any amount of alcohol risky. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism in aging adults is “a silent epidemic.” Many older people pursue drinking patterns established earlier in life and may not realize that continuing to drink the same amount of alcohol as they did when they were younger may place them at risk for health problems.” They all rather should be using diet and exercise to reduce cardiac risk; trying alternative relaxation methods to reduce stress, exercise more ; and, for those who drink, cutting down on the amount of alcohol consumed by mixing it with water, taking an hour to finish one drink and alternating alcohol with nonalcoholic drinks. Because alcohol consumption is a too common practice, questions about drinking are necessarily part of a general medical health assessment.” Health experts warn that drinking too much alcohol, too fast can be dangerous. The Department of Health defines binge drinking as over six to eight units of alcohol in an evening for most adults. Their unit of alcohol depends on the strength of what you’re drinking. One unit is half a pint of ordinary strength lager, beer, or cider; a 25 ml measure of spirits; or a 125 ml, small glass of wine. Also children often copy their parents when it comes to their attitudes towards alcohol. All parents can reduce the risk to their children, such as avoiding drinking alcohol on every occasion. Too many people are getting into trouble with alcohol. Potential hazards include an increased risk of falls and vehicular accidents, a decline in short-term memory, a worsening of existing health problems and interactions with medications that may diminish the effectiveness of some drugs and increase the toxic effects of others.
Nearly twice as many liquor stores, relatively cheap booze and a pricing system that effectively discounts drinks with more alcohol are contributing to a rise in hazardous drinking, says B.C.’s provincial health officer. The same is true in Alberta and other provinces. A 2003 study found that 79 per cent of youth in school reported drinking at least once by age 17, and 20 per cent of those reported binge drinking three or more days in the previous month. While booze prices have risen in recent years, they have not kept pace with other consumer goods, a trend likely to continue with more competition among stores. Kendall recommends that pricing should reflect alcohol content, with discounts for low-alcohol alternatives and a price premium for stronger drinks. Current pricing creates “clear price incentives for consumers to choose higher-strength alcohol products in all major beverage classes,” As of 2007, government liquor stores accounted for 39 per cent of B.C. sales, with private stores up to 33 per cent. Bars, clubs and restaurants served most of the remainder. B.C.’s biggest average booze consumption occurs in the Interior Health Authority region, which includes the Okanagan and Kootenay regions, at 11 litres of pure alcohol per person per year. Vancouver Island was second at 10.71 litres, and also had the largest increase, 15.2 per cent between 2002 and 2007. Northern Health region was third at 9.73 litres per person, followed by Vancouver Coastal at 8.61 and Fraser, the lowest at 7.03. The Central Coast region of Vancouver Coastal has the highest consumption in the province, 13.69 litres per person in 2007.
More drunk drivers, motorists are hitting the sauce before hitting the road this holiday season too. About 1 percent of the drivers stopped are charged with impaired driving offences during the generally only one month long Police province wide drunk drivers check stop campaigns . Sadly there are plenty more drivers who often still do drank like fish get away during the rest of the year due to the limited number of police officers participating in check stops the rest of the year. We do thus know that very few of the actual people who are impaired and on the roads are caught by police. “The average person who is prepared to drive while impaired will do it about 80 times a year, repeat offenders causing the most problems.” “Drunk drivers are still; not getting the message, quite frankly, “The average blood-alcohol reading of those charged was .165, twice the legal limit of .08. The highest reading was .25, more than three times the limit, ” The drivers range between 19 and 59 years old. The average age is 35 but a dozen are over 40. (Older drivers) too seem to be more set in their habits and risk-takers also tend to be resistant to all education campaigns,” And during the same period over generally ten times more people now are being charged with failing to to wear seatbelts and Highway Traffic Act offences over impaired driving, even though it is drunk drivers, that causes many of the accidents? All now still Unsatisfactory.
In 2006, 232 Ontarians were killed in traffic accidents in which alcohol was a factor. “We’ve had an increased number of impaired driving fatalities in Ontario though we’re still seeing a downward trend in Ontario,” is still not enough policing here.
An Australian study estimates that about half of all traffic accidents in Australia may be due to road rage and most of the others related to alcohol, impaired driving and yet the police falsely tend to pursue revenue generating speeding traffic tickets still and why? Road rage is a relatively serious act; it can be seen as a violation of human and property rights , an endangerment of other’s personal well being, security.
“Now I recently had called the Police in Toronto to report a crime. The sergeant I assumed at the other end on the phone, by how he treated me, got the wrong mistake that he was my boss, that I had to do what he said, and he could order me around, and even lecture me , as the police recordings will show.. and we even got into a disagreement where he had said to me that ” the police were not here to serve the citizens” .. and I reminded him stil that he was not my boss, nor my superior, nor my doctor, nor my pastor, nor anything else to me, and that I did not call him to get his opinions, advice, to get a lecture, but I had called him to report a crime , and for him next to get on with taking down the particulars of the crime, such as my name, addreds etc.. clearlyt something that after 15 minutes of trying to lecture me he had firstly had failed to do. Now I am an old man, retired now too, and still it it was, inappropriate is too late for Him to try to lecture or boss me around. “
“The Canadian Press TORONTO – The head of the Ontario Provincial Police says drivers who crash in bad weather because of their own negligence should have to pay the bill. Commissioner Julian Fantino will propose absolute liability legislation today under the Highway Traffic Act to hold irresponsible drivers accountable. This essentially means making drivers pay for accidents in which they were driving aggressively in poor weather, not insurance companies Fantino says at least 40 per cent of crashes are caused because people are going too fast in poor conditions and not paying attention. He says his proposal targets people “who could care less” about how they are driving when the roads are bad. Fantino says his proposal mirrors laws currently on the books in almost every state in the U.S.”
A study of the figures in the British Medical Journal showed a gap between police and hospital data showed a wide divergence in these figures said one of the authors of the article, Mike Gill, professor of public health at Surrey University. The Police are known to lie, and they try to please their political bosses , to get a raise by generating revenue from traffic tickets too..
Now drivers getting better winter, all season tires would be also a better move.. brakes repaired regularly too. and while automotive death rates have fallen drastically in the last decade in Canada too , the ubiquitous use of cell phones and BlackBerrys while driving pose a serious danger to drivers and others still too.
Furthermore I call Commissioner Julian Fantino a liar and I do ask him SPECIFICALLY to prove with Honourable statistics that at least 40 per cent of the ROAD crashes are caused SOLELY because car drivers, truck drivers are going too fast in poor road conditions, unrelated to any other factors now too.
We all can play on statistics anyway we want, but let’s us have the whole truth rather here too.. while
” official statistics showed that only five per cent of crashes are caused by drivers breaking the speed limit. Drivers who let their attention wander cause more than six times as many accidents.” Driver error accounted for 66 per cent of accidents.. and add the road rage, impaired, drunk drivers, bad poorly maintained vehicles to that too .. Most reasonable and reasoning people have seen the folly of speed cameras for decades now too.
The insurance industry itself too often sleeps with legislators, cops because it wants to make loads of money by finding out reasons not to pay out as well.. they support traffic tickets even though they do not reduce the car accidents significantly cause it gives more money to the insurance firms, this is immoral gouging of consumers too often rather too.. now what about having some honest watchdogs and legislators rather. Go after the drunk drivers, raise the price of the booze firstly..
Hey even many cops are lazy, they also do want to be paid for doing nothing, but merely driving around , speeding too for they get a rush doing this as I have often witnessed it myself. Too bad for them they are paid to work still too. Maybe we can outlaw citizens driving any cars all together that way the cops and legislators too can still get paid and not have much to do.
Like I wrote“ Some cops guilty of reckless policing . So why is that so many police officers go brain dead when assigned to traffic duty? Answer me that. Case in point: Last week while testing a bunch of different motorcycles in Vancouver – read about it Thursday in Globe Auto – I was shocked to see a cop jump out into the middle of traffic. He was waving down two cars for allegedly speeding. I was riding in the opposite direction and what I saw so shocked me, I almost turned around to give the pink-vested cop a piece of my mind. What he did was reckless and endangered not only himself but other drivers. As for the people he pulled over, they might have been speeding, but if they were it wasn’t by much. We’re not talking street racing here, folks. Not possible in the middle of a busy workday morning in a crowded city like Vancouver. This was all bout revenue collection, not safety. What the cop did was, in fact, anything but safe. The next day, returning from Whistler down the Sea-to-Sky highway, I witnessed another piece of brilliant police work. At the bottom of a long, straight downhill stretch near a place called Lions Bay, the cops had set up another speed trap. The posted limit there is 80 km/hour. It’s pretty easy to slide past 90 km/hour on that bit of downhill, but it is so straight and so wide open, with two lanes in either direction, well, going a bit past the limit does not in any way pose a danger to society. No, I was not nabbed there; I know it’s a likely trap and always watch my speed. Others were nailed, though. They all looked like normal middle class folks to me. No obvious criminals, no reckless lunatics at all. Again, this speed trap was obviously about revenue collection, not public safety. My advice to anyone caught in an absurd speed trap is to fight it. I did and won my case in July. I had been pulled over more than a year ago for allegedly speeding on a Sunday afternoon. I argued with the cop that I was not speeding, that we were just two middle-aged guys going to play golf, driving along in the most modest of family sedans. And then I said I’d see him in court. Which I did. Two cops showed up, one of them a detective who had been doing traffic duty the year before. He was the witness. The other acted as prosecutor. I acted in my own defense. When the judge asked me if I had any courtroom experience, I replied: “Only what I’ve seen on Law and Order.” He laughed and so did the gallery, though the two policemen remained stone-faced. Long story short, the two cops were an embarrassment. They failed to present evidence properly and the judge was unhappy that they appeared to be discussing their testimony outside the courtroom during a break in the proceedings. In the end the judge – who was not at all sympathetic to their plight — said the policemen had made a major blunder in presenting evidence. He told me he’d dismiss the case if I made the request. I did. Case dismissed. The incompetence of the police was not rewarded. Like any sensible person, I am all for safe driving. But when the police set up speed traps only to collect revenue, then I see it as my civic duty to do what I can to discourage them. If nothing else, I hope we’ll see fewer police officers with their brains turned off, playing in traffic “http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/driving
Even Premier Dalton McGuinty at it again?
Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won’t be forcing Ontario motorists to use snow tires during the winter. not following the lead of Quebec, which introduced mandatory snow tire legislation.. so he uses another back door.. that will costs the citizens a lot more money… liability legislation today under the Highway Traffic Act to hold the supposedly irresponsible drivers accountable,, Shortage of governmental money means rather another hidden Ontario tax too.
Red faced “Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says his government erred when it tried to put heavy limitations on young drivers. Every once in a while you step in it,” McGuinty told reporters Tuesday. “We clearly overreached ourselves.” The McGuinty-led Liberals tabled legislation last month that would have prohibited teen drivers from having more than one passenger under the age of 20. Family members were exempted as passengers. The legislation included other measures targeting inexperienced drivers, such as automatic licence suspensions for speeding offences and a zero blood-alcohol limit for all motorists aged 21 and under. It was the measure restricting passengers, however, that prompted an overwhelming backlash. A Facebook group protesting the action attracted nearly 150,000 members.”
BONNYVILLE, Alta. – Alberta needs tougher drunk-driving laws to cut down on fatal accidents on the province’s highways, says an official with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
“Alberta has refused to move on very strategic legislative initiatives that most of the other provinces have moved on,” Andrew Murie, chief executive of the agency, said Friday.
He recently met with the province’s solicitor general, but said there seems to be little appetite in Alberta to adopt stricter measures.
Impaired driving is being investigated by police as a possible factor in two collisions this week that killed several family members.
In the latest crash late Thursday night, a man, his common-law wife and her two daughters died when their car collided head-on with a pickup truck on a rural highway in northeastern Alberta.
Ivan Charles Paul, 51; Frances (Stella) Yvonne Gadwa, 35; Alexis Josephine Gadwa, 15; and Sarah Margaret Gadwa, 14, were all from the Kehewin Cree Nation near Bonnyville.
The pickup’s driver, a 42-year-old man from Bonnyville, was taken to hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Another collision in southern Alberta earlier this week killed five people, including a man and his three young children. The truck they were in collided with a backhoe and both vehicles rolled into the ditch. The truck was filled with beer cans.
Murie said Alberta needs to combine public awareness campaigns with stricter laws to crack down on drinking and driving.
Some provinces such as Ontario and Prince Edward Island give lengthy roadside suspensions for drivers who blow more than .05, even though under the Criminal Code the legal limit is .08, Murie said.
“What happens is, you lose your licence, and, it depends on which province, (it’s) a minimum of three days up to seven days, right on the spot. There’s no criminal proceedings with it.”
“They have made incredible inroads … it makes the public much more accountable before they get behind the wheel of the car when they’ve been drinking.”
Drivers who’ve received their first impaired driving conviction in Alberta should be required to have special equipment in their vehicle, which doesn’t allow the ignition to work if they don’t pass a breathalyzer attached to the car, Murie said.
Those regulations in British Columbia have saved lives, Murie said.
“Right now in Alberta, it’s not mandatory until you’ve been charged twice. Why do you get a free ride when you have technology that stops people from drinking and driving?”
No one from the Alberta government could immediately be reached for comment.
According to figures from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, of the more than 3,000 people killed in collisions across Canada in 2006, at least 1,278 involved impaired driving.
According to statistics compiled by RCMP in Alberta, there have been 28 fatal collisions so far this month – with 13 deaths in just the past few days alone.
Fifteen of those collisions may have involved drugs or alcohol.
The number of impaired driving-related collisions has stayed steady for the last few years in Alberta, something that is of concern for Insp. James Stiles, the officer in charge of traffic services for the RCMP.
“Over 400 people are killed on Alberta’s highways every year for a variety of causes. But a significant contributing factor to that is people who continue to drink and drive and put everyone at risk on the highways, including themselves,” he said.
Police and community agencies have hammered home the anti-drinking and driving message so Stiles isn’t sure why the number of impaired driving-related collisions isn’t dropping.
Alcohol is a contributing factor in 26 per cent of fatal collisions in Alberta, Stiles noted.
“They’re not just numbers, those are families that are affected forever. In some cases we have seen virtually immediate families almost wiped out in one collision,” he said.
Louise Knox, 42, of Spruce Grove, Alta., knows what it’s like to have her world shattered by a drunk driver. In fact, it’s happened to her family three times.
In 1999, her son Mike was killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver near St. Paul, Alta., northeast of Edmonton.
In 2007, her youngest son Eric, who was just 17 at the time, was in a vehicle being driven by a drunk driver. The vehicle rolled, killing a young man who was a passenger. Earlier this year, the driver received a four-year jail sentence after being convicted of impaired driving causing death but will be eligible for parole in September.
That same year, Knox was sitting at a stoplight in Edmonton when her vehicle and several others were sideswiped by an impaired driver, who then fled. Several of the drivers, including Knox, followed him until police could apprehend him. The driver was sentenced to a one-year jail term.
She said her heart goes out to the families in Alberta who’ve lost so many loved ones in collisions this week – collisions that were completely preventable, in her opinion.
Drunk drivers are staying behind the wheel because they’re not taking responsibility for their behaviour and not being caught, despite the best efforts of police, Knox said.
“It’s like Russian roulette. One of these times you’re going to get caught. Hopefully it’s a police officer that’s pulled you over, it’s not because you’ve crashed into somebody,” she said.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090724/national/family_collision
“Even so, snow tires are still a wise choice for motorists in southern Ontario, too. However, a snow tire is no surety against the repercussions of reckless or dangerous driving. And that’s the key thing. More often than not, vehicular collisions on winter roads aren’t caused by the lack of snow tires on a vehicle. It’s (ALSO NOT ) caused by motorists who are driving too fast or not accordingly to the conditions. This is also what Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino (FALSELY) touched upon this week when he urged the government to increase fines and demerit points for drivers speeding in bad weather conditions – whether it’s snow, heavy rain or thick fog. Fantino’s pitch came on the heels of a weekend that saw provincial police officers respond to more than 3,000 collisions as large swaths of the province were walloped by two snowstorms. At least 40% of crashes are caused by speeding in poor conditions and not paying attention, Fantino said. (His unofficial, unreliable statistics, remark NOW refers to a small period of accidents and not RATHER the true statistics for the whole year firstly since most accidents are caused by rage, impaired driving, poor drivers, vehciles and driver errors). The Highway Traffic Act already has provisions and penalties for speeding and careless driving. Do we really need another section in the Act that specifically addresses bad driving in poor weather? No, we don’t. What we do need is the strict enforcement of existing traffic laws – not just about speeding but also signaling turns and taking the proper precautions before changing lanes.” http://www.tirereview.com/default.aspxtype=wm&module=4&id=2&state=DisplayFullText&item=13392
THE LAZY COPS DID NOT WANT TO WORK SO THEY THINK PROPOSING MORE ABSURD LAWS WILL REDUCE THEIR WORK LOAD EHH..
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 12:13 PM
Subject: RE: So the Cops and others still lie too
Thank you for your email. Looks like a gift to private insurance companies.
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