In the News

MADD urges partiers to take a taxi home
Calgary Herald
By Jason Van Rassel
November 6, 2009

W hen the choices are laid out side by side, the answer seems simple: arrive home alive in a taxi, instead of dead, injured or under arrest.

Yet, as Mothers Against Drunk Driving launched its national Red Ribbon campaign in Calgary on Thursday, grim statistics illustrate that too many people are still opting to get behind the wheel when they're impaired by alcohol or drugs.

"We want everybody to enjoy the holiday parties, but plan ahead," said the president of Calgary's MADD chapter, Bonnie Franklin, as she stood in front of an array of emergency vehicles, a hearse and a taxi.

"Choose your ride."

That statement is the theme of this year's MADD campaign, which encourages people to tie red ribbons to their vehicles to demonstrate their support for MADD and opposition to impaired driving.

The campaign is meant to coincide with the busy holiday party season; however, first responders deal with carnage resulting from drunk driving all year round.

Every day, an average of four Canadians die in alcohol-related collisions and 200 more are injured.

Despite decades of public awareness campaigns stigmatizing drunk driving, Alberta has actually recorded increases in impaired cases. It's unclear whether the increases are a sign of greater enforcement--including the addition of 105 Alberta sheriffs--or represent a rise in the number of drunk drivers. Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson said the 1,260 charges laid so far this year are troubling.

Education campaigns like MADD's remain a valuable tactic, but success also depends on tougher laws and political support, said Hanson.

Also see...

MADD Canada's Project Red Ribbon campaign