Brooklyn Davis
Scholarship Recipient
Drinking and driving affects all Saskatchewan residents. There are roughly 6,328 drunk driving accidents per year. In 2020, there were 32 deaths due to drunk driving. Although there are many ways to get a safe ride home, people aren’t always competent enough to make the safest choice. Preventing drinking and driving by changing the laws surrounding it and educating people about the effects and consequences of drinking and driving is the way to stop it.
In my opinion, driving drunk is stupid. There is no good reason to drink and drive. My grandfather, Garry Davis, has always made sure I understood the consequences and effects of drinking and driving. He was the provincial coordinator of the Driving Without Impairment program for several years. The course is mandatory for drivers with a first offense of impaired driving. My grandfather was passionate about lowering drinking and driving rates with this program so that future generations, including his children and grandchildren, would be smarter and safer while driving.
In 33% of impaired driving incidents in Canada, the driver is between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, so making it harder for that age group to drink and drive may lower rates and save lives. Increasing the legal drinking age, even by a year or two, could make a difference. If the government also increased financial penalties for underage drinking, paired with the increase in the drinking age, it could cause a drop in drinking and driving rates. Another way the 2 government could help to lower drinking and driving rates is to support visual demonstrations that serve as a constant reminder to drivers that drinking and driving takes and changes lives. In the past summers, MADD Canada has conducted several demonstrations all over Saskatchewan. They have placed signs where drunk drivers have been caught and placed a few staged drunk driving crash sites around Saskatchewan, including one in Prince Albert and one at the University of Regina. Hopefully, people will look at these visual reminders and choose to get a safe ride home.
I want to help prevent drinking and driving whenever and wherever I can. Spreading awareness and resources about drinking and driving such as articles, statistics, laws surrounding the issues, and personal stories to family and friends will help raise awareness of the issue. Another way I can help fight this issue is to make sure my friends and family know how to find a safe ride home. In today’s world, there are plenty of different ways to get home without driving yourself and it only takes five minutes of thinking ahead to find one. I also plan to find safe rides home as well as volunteer to be a designated driver when my friends and I become old enough to drink. These are just some of the ways I can help prevent drinking and driving.
There are around 6,300 impaired driving accidents in Saskatchewan per year. Between 2014 and 2019, there was an average of thirty-nine deaths per year, which is roughly 200 deaths total. So many people have been affected by drunk driving in Saskatchewan, and I believe it has to stop. Drunk driving is a serious problem in Saskatchewan, but it can be prevented by informing people of the dangers by using visual reminders, creating laws around the drinking age and penalties, and making sure all of Saskatchewan knows the effects and consequences of drinking and driving.
Works Cited — YouTube: Home, 9 November 2017, https://sgi.sk.ca/handbook/-/knowledge_base/drivers/drinking-drugs-and-driving. Accessed 25 April 2024. “Criminal Code impaired driving offences – all drivers.” SGI, https://sgi.sk.ca/high-alcohol-level. Accessed 25 April 2024. “Statistics & Links – MADD Canada.” MADD Canada, 18 July 2023, https://madd.ca/pages/programs/youth-services/statistics-links/. Accessed 25 April 2024.
Brooklyn Davis is a recent graduate of Carlton Comprehensive Public High School, and the recipient of the Kerrianne Dawn Bergen Memorial Scholarship.
