Sept 24/10 - Pt 1: Impaired Driving

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Our Friday host today was Ian Hanomansing in Vancouver.

PART ONE

It's Friday, September 24th.

According to India's foreign minister, New Delhi's Commonwealth Games will be - quote - "one of the most successful" in the history of the competition.

Currently, that's just the dengue fever talking.

This is The Current.

Impaired Driving - Corporal Peter DeVries

We started this segment with a clip from Mike De Jong, British Columbia's Attorney General. He's talking about the province's new drunk driving rules. They came into effect earlier this week. And they're some of the toughest in the country. Drivers who blow over 0.08 per cent blood alcohol will still be charged with impaired driving, though the penalties will be much tougher than they used to be.

But now, if you blow between 0.05 per cent blood alcohol and 0.08 per cent, police can suspend your license and impound your car for three days and hit you with 450-dollars worth of penalties and fees. And they can do that without charging you with a crime. The North Vancouver RCMP detachment was one of the first to enforce the new regulations ... less than an hour after they came into force. Corporal Peter DeVries is with the North Vancouver RCMP.

Impaired Driving - John Vavrik

Drunk driving has been illegal in Canada since 1921. At the time, it was only considered a summery offense. In 1969, Blood Alcohol Content was written into the law as a way of measuring intoxication.

During the 1980s, public awareness and education campaigns took off, aiming to change people's attitudes and to combat a spike in the number of cases of drinking and driving.

In 1985, two new offenses were created ... "impaired driving causing bodily harm" and "impaired driving causing death." The penalties for impaired driving were also increased around that time.

In 1994, a study found that drinking and driving had decreased significantly in Canada and that alcohol was less likely to be involved in collisions resulting in injuries or death.

However, drinking and driving has not disappeared. In 2006, an estimated 3,122 people were killed in car crashes in which alcohol was a factor. John Vavrik is a Research Psychologist with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. That's a provincial crown corporation that provides universal auto insurance in BC. He studies driver behaviour. He was in our Vancouver studio.

Impaired Driving - Peter Dotsikas

Our next guest says BC's new driving rules go too far. Peter Dotsikas is a criminal defense lawyer and a former Crown Attorney who represents numerous clients charged with drinking and driving offences. He is also part owner of XCopper Legal Services, a paralegal firm. He was in Toronto.