With the festive winter season underway, and with provincial COVID-19 restrictions being somewhat eased, families and friends will be getting together across the region to safely celebrate and visit.
And with the pandemic having made group gatherings more than a little difficult over the past many months, there is no time like the present to put the trying times aside.
No doubt about it, the long-awaited festivities at the end of 2021 are welcome and needed in communities big and small, including in this district.
Unfortunately, because of the danger posed by alcohol and drug impaired driving, holiday season 2021 also has the potential to be a time of tragedy and heartbreak.
Even with the health-care system strained as never before, some individuals may decide again this year to put aside common sense, get behind the wheel of a car or truck, and hit the road in a drunken and/or drug-addled state.
And, sadly, such grossly mistaken decisions create the real possibility that innocent people will be seriously injured enough to require hospitalization.
As it does every year, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is leading the fight against impaired motoring in 2021.
According to MADD there were than 86,000 impaired driving-related incidents in Canada last year – a shocking total that equates to more than 200 potentially deadly incidents every single day.
Obviously there continues to be a real need to educate people about the danger that alcohol and drug-impaired driving poses for the community-at-large.
As part of the effort to encourage safe driving and to discourage drunks from getting behind the wheel, MADD’s national campaign slogan in 2021 is simplicity itself: “Never Drive Impaired.”
With Alberta’s fine doctors, nurses and other health professionals continuing to have their hands full saving the lives of their fellow citizens from the deadly COVID-19 virus, motorists in this region should take MADD’s 2021 message to heart and drive only when stone-cold sober.
Dan Singleton is an editor with the Albertan.
