National Newsletter - Summer 2010

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• Campaign 911 Kicks-Off With New Highway Signs
• It Has Been an Honour to Serve as Your National President
• Delegates Share, Support and Rebuild Lives at 2010 Victims’ Weekend
• Most Canadians Support Random Breath Testing
• New Victim PSA Debuts
• New TV PSAs Take a Different Approach to Awareness
• Canadians Stride for Change
• Licence Suspensions at .05% BAC Stop, Deter Risky Drivers
• Chapter Notebook
• Support MADD Canada and Gain Rewards with BMO MasterCard
• Donate Your Vehicle to Car Heaven and Support MADD Canada
• Magazine Subscriptions Benefit MADD Canada

Campaign 911 Kicks-Off With New Highway Signs

MADD Canada’s 2010 Campaign 911 initiative officially kicked-off in April with the unveiling of 10 new signs which have been erected on highways in Ontario.

The English and French signs have been posted along highways 400, 401, 404 and 427 to encourage the public to call 911 if they see a driver they suspect is impaired. They are the result of a partnership between the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, the Ontario Provincial Police and MADD Canada.

“Encouraging motorists to report suspected impaired drivers will help get drunk drivers off the road,” said The Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Ontario Minister of Transportation. “The Ontario government supports MAD  Canada’s Campaign 911 and will continue to work with MADD Canada and other partners to keep impaired drivers off the road.”

The signs were the backdrop for a national launch which will see MADD Canada Chapters and Community Leaders across the country continuing their efforts to reach out to their communities
with the Campaign 911 message. Through signs, billboards, public service announcements, postcards, bookmarks and other materials, Campaign 911 encourages the public to call 911 if they see a driver they suspect is impaired and provides the public with information on the potential signs of an impaired driver.

“Each year, a few weeks before the May long weekend, MADD Canada hosts an event to launch our annual Campaign 911 program,” MADD Canada National President Margaret Miller told
assembled guests and media at the sign unveiling.

“Our goal is to raise awareness about the problem of impaired driving and to educate the public about how they can help prevent impaired driving crashes, deaths and injuries.”

The Ontario signs are the latest in a series of new initiatives which have seen Call 911 signs erected in towns and provinces across the country, including these recent programs:

• In May 2010, Campaign 911 came to Saskatchewan with a joint initiative between

MADD Canada, the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority and Saskatchewan Government Insurance. The partnership will see signs being placed throughout the province.

• MADD Canada and MADD Avalon Chapter joined with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to launch Campaign 911 in designated parts of province.
• MADD Canada worked with the province of Nova Scotia to start a province-wide Call 911 program.
• MADD Calgary Chapter launched “Report Impaired Driving” in partnership with Alberta Health Services, the City of Calgary, Public Safety Communications and the Calgary Police.

These new programs join existing Call 911 initiatives in towns, cities and provinces all across the country, and they are making an impact. In the first five months of the Calgary initiative, for example, there was a 60% increase in 911 calls to report impaired drivers and a 17% increase in charges laid as a result of 911 calls.

“With each impaired driver we can take off the road, we are potentially saving a life or preventing an injury,” Mrs. Miller noted at the launch event in Toronto. “That is why these signs
and Call 911 programs are so vital.”

MADD Canada gratefully acknowledges Campaign 911 Title Sponsor #TAXI and Official Sponsor Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, and all the provincial and local sponsors and partners who make the program possible. A special thank you also goes out to local and provincial governments and police forces across the country who work with MADD Canada
to implement and support Campaign 911.

MADD Canada’s Sober Boating Initiatives Expand

MADD Canada is continuing its efforts to extend Campaign 911to the waterways with a project to install new Call 911 – Report Impaired Boating signage.

Thanks to a grant from Transport Canada, MADD Canada will erect 50 Call 911 signs at marinas across Canada. The project is underway now and will be completed by the fall.

With alcohol being a factor in more than 40% of recreational boating fatalities, there is great need to educate boaters about the dangers of operating their vessels while impaired. Additionally, many boaters do not realize that impaired driving laws apply to the waterways the same way they apply to the roadways.

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