Hey Alberta! Get ready for some changes to your friendly, neighborhood impaired driving laws.
Transportation Minister Ric McIver laid out the ground rules on Monday. The legal limit isn't changing, but the penalties are. And they're not sitting well with some people.
Here's the basics: starting July 1st, if you provide a breath sample that registers over .08, your vehicle will be impounded for 72 hours (up from the previous 24 hours) and you lose your license indefinitely. What does "indefinitely" mean? It means until the process is done making its way through the court system. Which could be awhile, especially if you've seen some of the waits people are going through to set trial dates (AT LEAST six months).
The #1 question on everyone's mind: isn't this "guilty until proven innocent?" I'll let you be the judge of that. But McIver did reply to one of our questions by saying it's exactly the same way as how you're treated with any other criminal code offense. You're taken into custody (aka your freedoms are taken away) and you make your way into our justice system. Fair enough analogy. But I can already tell you what's going to be on the front page of your local newspaper within a week or two of these new rules going into effect: someone claiming they've been fired after losing their license, where driving was integral to their job. And you know what? That same person is probably going to claim that they are innocent. It might be a badly-calibrated breathalyzer or the officer didn't have reason to pull the person over in the first place. Whatever the case may be, it wasn't their fault they were caught.
Yup. I went there. "They were caught." It's the only reason anyone ever really starts complaining when it comes to impaired driving. Covering docket courts for a few years, you get a really good idea about all the excuses out there for why someone was out drinking and driving. McIver spent 20+ minutes up at the podium and I was waiting for him to say one thing that he never said: "if you don't want to get your license taken away, don't drink and drive." That's what this boils down to. Here's another way of looking at it: for years we've been bombarded with the "don't drink and drive" message yet people still did it and, for the most part, it was "don't drink and drive unless you've only had a couple and, in which case, you're free to go." This is taking a harder line approach to it.
Now, it's my understanding that starting in September is when you can replace the .08 with a .05. Blow over .05 and you're into that "No License, No Car, No Mercy" situation. Again, it's the province playing hard ball. McIver's not afraid of any constitutional challenges.
Here's where things get a little murky. What happens if John Smith gets pulled over and is charged, yet is found NOT GUILTY in the criminal courts? McIver was asked if there'd be any compensation for, let's say, loss of job. No dice apparently. My guess it's THAT part that's not going to fly with a few people. You know the province's opposition parties are going to jump all over this legislation like flies on...well...ya know. They're going to say that the problem isn't the .08 or the penalties, the problem is enforcement. "We need more officers on the street catching these menaces." And we all know that groups like MADD will be happy the province is moving closer to a "zero tolerance" policy. It's a "good step" they will say.
But let's cut the posturing and hoopla. Brass tax: it's ultimately up to individual drivers to take that step in not drinking and driving IN THE FIRST PLACE. Remember how much everyone groaned when seatbelts became mandatory? It was such an inconvenience they said. Yet, I was speaking with Cst. Jim Lebedeff of the Calgary Police Service a while back and, if memory serves me right, he said more than 92% of Albertans buckle up. We got over it. So why is it that Albertans continue to cry rivers over something like drinking and driving?
It's that last little bit at the end there that got me, "We got over it. So why is it that Albertans continue to cry rivers over something like drinking and driving?"
ReplyDeleteThe answer to that is simple -- if there is one thing that Albertans despise it's change. We've had the same government for 41 years, except we haven't. The Lougheed government was VASTLY different from the Klein government which was VASTLY different from the current Redford government. However, it's all branded under that nice little "Progressive Conservative" heading that makes people feel easy, even though they're getting an entirely different government.
When people heard that seatbelts were becoming mandatory they, for lack of a better term, flipped their shit. That’s silly though, seatbelts save lives, but when “the man” lays down the law it’s impeding their freedom. Albertans bitch about it for awhile, and then the hype wears down and we all get over it and move on.
Anyways, the drinking and driving law – I honestly think it’s fantastic. Smarten up, don’t drink and drive. It’s that simple. I’ll agree we might be pushing it a little come September with having harsher laws and a lower limit, but .08 is pretty high, and studies have shown that at .05 many people become impaired.
I was pulled over at a check stop and had a breathalyzer once, and I won’t lie I had been pretty tipsy earlier in the evening. At that point I hadn’t had a drink in two hours and I had been drinking water since – I blew .03. Phew what a relief, I was pretty nervous to be honest. That being said, I don’t think I should have had much more and drove, but I could have been at least double how I was feeling and I still would have technically been under the legal limit.
What people fail to realize however, is that .05 has kind of been around forever. Yes .08 is the legal limit, but if you blow over .05 the officer can use his own discretion whether or not to take your licence away for the evening. Now most of the time they don’t, but that’s not saying that they can’t. This law isn’t really anything that new or scary; it’s just that it’s being highly publicized because it’s just one more thing to scare Albertans. How privileged this province is, that the one of the scariest things we have to deal with is taking more drunk drivers off the road. Boo-hoo. (Let’s just forget about our recent murder-ridden province for a moment).
You’re absolutely right Joe, what it boils down to is, “If you don’t want your licence taken away, then don’t drink and drive.” It really is just that simple. Remember earlier this year when the Wild Rose was standing outside bars with coasters that said “.05” with a red circle and a strike through it? They claimed that the Redford government was targeting social drinkers, but that simply isn’t so. You can still go out for dinner and have a couple glasses of wine or a couple of beers and drive home. This law isn’t for you, if anything you’ll be like me and blow .03, if even that. People don’t understand BAC, and that’s where people get scared.
Now of course there will be counter-arguments of people saying, “Oh well BAC is flawed because it’s different for other people depending on your height and weight and blah blah blah.” Well if you’re really that concerned then find out, go get a home breathalyzer test and monitor yourself throughout the night (it’s kind of expensive, but it’s cheaper than losing your licence), or you know… just be less of an alcoholic. Get to know your body; get to know your limits. If I’m 22 and can figure it out, then I’m pretty sure the 40-year-olds who are complaining about this law can figure it out too.
I guess longwinded final response to your blog Joe – people need to grow up and move on. The times are changing, in my parents’ day they drank and drove all the time, it just wasn’t a big deal. You know what else we used to do? Build houses with asbestos. Come on.