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Think safe and smart before the holidays

We’re into the final days before Christmas, and at this time of year, it’s common for the festivities to ramp up. Businesses that haven’t had their Christmas parties yet likely will do so.

We’re into the final days before Christmas, and at this time of year, it’s common for the festivities to ramp up.

Businesses that haven’t had their Christmas parties yet likely will do so. You’re going to have all of those fun and wonderful Christmas socials, get-togethers with family and friends, and other outings that help make this time of year so enjoyable for so many.

But there’s one thing that has to be remembered: the need for the safe way home.

Some might be sick and tired of hearing others harp about the need to get home safe, but it’s only being reinforced because some people still aren’t getting the message. It shows every time you hear that the Estevan Police Service or the RCMP arrest an impaired driver, each time you see the name of an alleged impaired driver appear in print or online, and each time an impaired driver pleads guilty to the charge in court.

We’ve seen accidents involving drunk drivers result in injuries and fatalities, and with each one of those, lives are changed, families can be ruined.

And now that recreational cannabis is legal in Canada, there’s another avenue for people to be impaired, although the impaired by drug driving charges haven’t gone up in Canada as much as some people expected.

Regardless, as long as people are getting nailed for impaired driving, and as long as accidents are happening because of impaired driving, the need will remain to nag the public about the dangers of impaired driving.

Are we making gains as a society? We’d like to think so. The number of Criminal Code charges for impaired driving due to alcohol in Estevan is down this year. We’ve gone through considerable periods of time, weeks, in fact, without someone being charged with impaired driving.

And then we’ve also had nights like a couple of weeks ago in which multiple people were taken off the road in one night for driving while drunk.

We’d like to think the lower impaired driving rates reflect more and more people getting the message that it’s absurd in this day and age to get behind the wheel and drive while impaired.

We’d hope it’s because people have seen the numbers associated with drunk driving, since it remains the leading cause of fatalities on Saskatchewan roads. We hope that people are sick of hearing that Saskatchewan leads the country in impaired driving fatalities.

And we would hope that the new measures the province has introduced to reduce impaired driving have been a deterrent for some who would have otherwise been tempted to get behind the wheel.

There’s no excuse for driving while impaired, be it due to alcohol, marijuana or any other drug. Not when we know the impact.

You might think you’re safe to drive because you’ve only had a couple of pints, or because you’ve been eating while you’ve been drinking, or because you’d had that much to drink before, and still managed to make it home safe.

Yet when you get pulled over, none of those excuses matter to the breathalyzer.

This is supposed to be a wonderful and festive time of year, a time for all those great social nights that we enjoy so much.

But one bad decision can ruin the Christmas season or New Year’s Eve for you and for others.

And besides, this time of year is expensive enough as it is, with Christmas shopping and nights out. Do you really need to add the cost of impaired driving, impound fees and legal fees to the expenses you’ll be facing?