Alberta conviction rate on impaired drivers lowest in nation
Posted Jan 11, 2013 7:13 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Drunk driving rates are up in our province, much to the chagrin of Alberta politicians and police.
New numbers from Statistics Canada show impaired driving is up four per cent; that makes people in living in the province 70 per cent more likely than the national average to get caught.
The numbers show drunk driving in Alberta rose slightly faster than the national average with 450 people being caught for every 100,000 people.
But they also show the conviction rate here is the lowest in the nation, tied with Ontario at 81 per cent.
Assistant Deputy Minister of Criminal Justice, Greg Lepp, believes the lower rate has to do with the number of Alberta defence lawyers that specialize in impaired driving.
Many of these, he tells The Calgary Herald, spare no expense in trying to exploit technical areas of the law in hopes of getting their client off the hook.
To fight this rising tide, Lepp’s department is hiring more specialist prosecutors with the knowledge needed to clear these legal hurdles.
While first time offenders rarely get jail time unless they’ve caused injury or death, Lepp says prosecutors are still seeking the minimum two week sentence.
He says the province’s lower conviction rates and lenient sentences may have something to do with fewer repeat offenders before the courts rather than more lenient prosecutors and judges.
The figures released by Statistics Canada are from 2011, before the province’s tough new drinking and driving law took effect.
