‘It’s so heartbreaking’: Calgary police detail sobering statistics around impaired driving

Even with COVID-19 concerns, the holiday season is here and that can mean more people enjoying an alcoholic drink.

However, new numbers show just how big of a problem that can be, with Calgary police saying at any given time, two per cent of all drivers on the road are estimated to be impaired, on weekend nights that number jumps to 10 per cent.

“That can be impaired by alcohol, that can be impaired by drugs, and that potentially even means being impaired by fatigue. That’s an alarming amount of people,” said Calgary Police Constable Kody Greene from the Alcohol and Drug Recognition Unit.

Greene adds the average person who does drink and drive will decide to do it up to 50 times or more per year.

“It’s not just the Saturday night at a Christmas party and it’s not just ‘I didn’t want to leave my car downtown’, these are people that generally will continue that behaviour,” said Greene.

One such case happened on Dec. 11. Calgary police say a van collided with a cyclist, and both men were taken to hospital in critical life-threatening condition. Investigators believe both were impaired at the time of the crash.

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“We see the horrors every single day, we deal with families that have lost loved ones due to impaired driving,” said MADD Calgary president Rick Lundy.

“It’s so heartbreaking because this is a very selfish act when people get behind the wheel when they’ve been drinking or doing cannabis.

“It’s so heartbreaking because this is a very selfish act,” said Lundy.

December is Impaired Driving Prevention Month and Greene says over the last couple of years their unit has shifted a lot of their mandate into training officers on how to spot drug-impaired driving.

“Which we’ve seen become, and consistently compete with, alcohol-impaired driving to still be a problem that again we don’t believe has sufficiently been tackled,” said Greene.

Calgary police say seven fatal collisions involving impairment happened in 2021.

“Even if we were at absolutely zero we would still have an important job to do,” said Greene.

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“It’s not just about making sure we don’t drink and drive, it’s making sure that our friends and family don’t drink and drive and that they have a safe way home too,” said Lundy.

Officers say Calgarians can also help them tackle impaired driving by pulling over and calling 911 if they suspect another driver is under the influence.

“Some people may think that using up 911 resources but if that person continues on down the road and ends up colliding with somebody, it absolutely is going to become an emergency.”