On Saturday, Saskatchewan R.C.M.P. took to social media to help put an end to impaired driving, an effort on National Impaired Driving Enforcement Day.

“In December 2015, we charged 210 people for impaired driving offences, that's almost seven per day,” said Sgt. Al Hofland, acting officer in charge of RCMP F Division traffic services.

Online, RCMP shared one Mountie’s story an hour about responding to impaired driving calls from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday.

"We want to make our roadways safe--that's the message,” said Sgt. Hofland. “Getting the public on board, obviously, it is challenging. But we feel through messaging, education, prevention and obviously through enforcement, that the message will come home."

 

In 2015, Saskatchewan saw nearly 1,200 crashes related to impaired driving, according to SGI. And this year, there have already been more.

"We do our enforcement as best as we can,” said Sgt. Hofland. “We put them through our justice system and we hope that at the end of the day, that they do obviously take something away from this in terms of this actually being a consequence, so they learn from their experience."

 

"Because of the prevalence of impaired driving in our province, most people have been affected by it. This makes the RCMP’s message even more important.

"Especially the younger people, they just don't have a clue of what impact it has on people's lives every day,” said Regina resident, Kim Nordwick. “I think with people sharing exactly what has happened in different people's lives could maybe help.”

While fellow resident Graham Brown agrees there is a problem with impaired driving in Saskatchewan, he says the RCMP's campaign won’t make a difference for some.

"When the government says you can drink up to .08, and then judge whether you're intoxicated enough to drive or not, that sends a mixed message,” said Brown. “I think it's (the RCMP's story sharing) going to convince the people who are already convinced. But those who remain on the fence about whether it's a problem or not will, remain on the fence and not convince them."

 

Saskatchewan has the highest impaired driving fatality rate per capita in Canada, with 53 deaths accounted for last year. But RCMP hope that through campaigns like this will change that statistic.