Fort St. John mayor vows impaired driving crackdown will continue
Mayor Lantz: Two pronged approach, enforcement and education.
By Salim Jiwa
FORT ST JOHN, B.C. – RCMP are continuing their crackdown on the chronic drinking and driving problem faced by the northern B.C. city and Mayor Bruce Lantz says they have his support.
In September, enforcement with the help of cops brought in from other areas resulted in 80 impaired drivers being taken off the road.
In the latest round of road stops starting Oct. 1, RCMP took an additional 28 impaired drivers out of their cars.
Mayor Bruce Lantz admits there is a problem with impaired driving and said he ordered a crackdown when a new head was selected for the Fort St. John RCMP.
“We recognize in Fort St. John that there is a problem,” he said in an interview. “We have, as you can expect from any community that has relatively young population and a relatively high income – we have one of the highest per capita incomes in B.C. – you can expect that we’re going to have a problem with drugs and alcohol.”
“We recently hired a new RCMP inspector and one of the first conversations I had with him was about this very issue ,” he said.
“We have asked the RCMP to use the available resources to attack the problem,” he said. “The increased number of charges are because of enforcement – they are targeting those people.”
“It is a serious issue, we have to take a two-pronged approach, enforcement is important, education is important,” said Lantz. “Most people here make good money working in the oil patch – you lose your licence for a year you can’t go to work – and we are looking into adding more police officers.”
“It is a problem, it is a community problem,” said Cpl. Tom Woodall in an interview after police called in reinforcements from surrounding areas to carry out a crackdown on the northern community. “There are lots of young people, lots of money and lots of bars in town.”
In the latest roundup carried out in the first three days of October, 13 drivers were apprehended for impaired driving who now face charges under the Criminal Code, and 15 drivers were issued 24 hour driving prohibitions under the Provincial Motor Vehicle Act.
“For the general public, this means that there were 28 drivers taken off the road over the weekend as a result of alcohol consumption alone,” said Woodall.
“In addition to apprehension of impaired drivers, 233 traffic violation tickets were issued of which 47 were for seat belt offences, and 86 for speeding offences,” he said.
Woodall said he believes the number of people who could be taken off the road is limited simply by available police resources and many more are drinking and driving.
“Impaired driving is the leading Criminal cause of death in the Country, and the number one killer of youth. Failure to wear seat belts is a major contributing factor to death and serious injury when collisions do occur,” said the officer.
“With all the research, attention, education, and enforcement dedicated to these facts, it is difficult to understand why there continues to be such a high incidence of offences in the area,” he added.
In an operation carried from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26. police called in help from Dawson Creek and Prince George.
“This initiative, similar to the one conducted in the area September 10th to 12th, was to address the alarming incidence of non compliance with seat belt regulations, aggressive driving, and the high number of impaired drivers in the Fort St John area,” he said.
“Each of the four collision fatalities which have occurred in the Fort St John area this year to date has involved one or a combination of these three factors,” said Woodall who believes the city of 18,000 has one of the highest rates of impaired driving in B.C. and alcohol related road accident fatality rates.
The Sept. 24 operation resulted in 24 impaired drivers being apprehended, twenty-one 24hour driving prohibitions issued, 64 seat belt violations, and 174 other traffic violations of which 72 were speeding, he said.
“Fort St John residents should consider the number of impaired drivers being apprehended in the area an alarming figure, with September alone seeing over 80 drivers removed from the roadways due to alcohol related offences,” he said.
Winter months will arrive in the Peace Region very soon, bringing with it a return to challenging winter driving conditions. Active enforcement to reduce speeds and increase seat belt compliance will be increased accordingly in the weeks ahead, said the policeman.
“Apprehension of impaired drivers continues to be a priority,” he said, noting that some 40 people have been charged with criminal offences in September as a result of drinking and driving.
Mayor Lantz said he is determined to put the brakes on the problem of drinking and driving driven by youth and money in the northern city.
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Posted by Salim Jiwa
on Oct 6 2009. Filed under B.C., More News.
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If they had enough police resources they could take everybody off the road.