There are steps loved ones, friends and even strangers can do to ensure people are not driving under the influence this holiday season, said Adam DeFrane, director of MADD and a police officer with the Saanich police department for 11 years.
If friends and family are at home, you can take their keys and either offer to drive them home or provide them with a place to stay the night.
“If you’re at maybe a function or a club, and someone’s impaired, you are not comfortable enough to maybe approach themselves, you can talk to the staff, or whoever’s in charge of the event, if they can talk to them, keep an eye on that person,” DeFrane said.
The final thing someone can do is to call 911, he said, and even if they do make a stop and find the person is not under the influence, Defrane said he would prefer this and find out it was someone who might be a bad driver rather someone over the legal alcohol limit.
“If they see something on the road that’s funky, that doesn’t add up, that isn’t just sort of normal driving behaviour, call 911.”
Delayed reaction time, lack of depth perception, and stormy weather around the holiday season are some of the reasons people should not drink and drive, said Defrane.
At any given time, on any given road across B.C., one could find an impaired driver, whether they are on drugs or alcohol, said Defrane.
Some might be getting in the car after having three or four drinks and feel fine, while some might be entirely over the limit and feel fine, he said, but are not letting their bodies process the alcohol.
“If you’re out at a pub, and then you chugged a bottle of water and thought, well, it’s good to drive home. That’s not how it works,” DeFrane said. “If you’re constantly drinking, no matter what else you do, to think you’re going to help that is not going to change things. Chugging water won’t help.”
Vancouver Island and the Greater Victoria area have had only three deaths from impaired driving in 2022, according to ICBC, and have been a little luckier than elsewhere in B.C, according to Defrane, but that does not mean Victoria is immune from drunk driving incidents.
“A guy wrapped his car around a pole. And it was directly related to alcohol. Now, he only hurt himself. However, he also crossed over a sidewalk close to a house. And it was completely preventable. So it’s still happening.”
Between the hours of 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. are the most common hours for impaired drivers, and this is because this is the time people are often coming home from a Christmas party or just a night out, said DeFrane.
“There’s just a higher concentration of people who had consumed alcohol or drugs or both out later, the more you go on into the night to the early morning.”
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