Members of the bipartisan Traffic Safety Committee have tabled their report, which goes to the legislative assembly this fall.
The bipartisan committee, which toured the province this summer and included Battlefords MLA Herb Cox as one of its members, released its report Aug. 30. The report outlined 26 recommendations on how to address the traffic safety issue.
Among the recommendations from the committee are the following:
Zero drug and alcohol tolerance for drivers up to 19 and any drivers in the Graduated Driver's Licensing (GDL) program
That drug-impaired drivers be subject to the same sanctions as alcohol impaired drivers.
The committee is calling for stiffer penalties for impaired driving including, for first offences: 60-day immediate licence suspension for drivers up to 19 and drivers in the GDL program, 72-hour suspension for experienced drivers with alcohol reading above .04 but below .08 and immediate suspension and vehicle impoundment for .08 to.15 of 30 days.
For second offences, licence suspensions are recommended at 120 days in that first category, and 21 days in the second with seven-day vehicle impoundment for both. For third offences the recommendation calls for 18-month licence suspension and seven-day impoundment and 90-day suspension and 14-day impoundment respectively.
For experienced drivers for second and third offences, with readings between .08 and.15 the length of vehicle impoundment is 30 days while for .16 or more it is 60 days.
The committee is also calling for more police officers. They recommend SGI fully fund up to 120 new officers dedicated to traffic enforcement over a four-year period and that the majority of these new officers be RCMP officers with some also being assigned to municipal policing.
Other recommendations call for more traffic safety messages, a recommendation that SGI partner with First Nations and Métis communities to develop public awareness and education programming, making holding and/or using a cell phone or electronic device illegal when in care and control of a motor vehicle on a roadway, a recommendation that drivers exceeding the speed limit by 35 km/h, rather than 50 km/h, lose four demerits points on the Safety Rating Scale in the Safe Driver Recognition program, and the endorsement of e-ticketing with full implementation as soon as possible throughout Saskatchewan. There are several other recommendations as well.
While the Traffic Safety Committee agreed on most recommendations, both NDP members Doyle Vermette and Danielle Chartier issued a minority opinion where they called for even tougher vehicle impoundment standards than the ones proposed.
The committee's majority recommendation called for vehicle impoundment with blood alcohol readings of .08, but the two NDP members called for impoundment to start at .05. They pointed to Alberta and British Columbia where the standard is a three-day vehicle impoundment for first-time offenders caught driving with a 0.05 reading or greater.
"A three-day impoundment for these drivers would send a clear message that the province of Saskatchewan wants to prevent fatalities and injuries on our roads and highways," they stated. "Unlike a suspension, an impoundment is harder to hide; it can be embarrassing; and, in the short-term, it complicates the work and life logistics of the impaired driver. Short-term vehicle impoundment, as shown in the BC and Alberta cases, is an effective deterrent to impaired driving for these very reasons."
