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There are readily available legislative initiatives that would effectively reduce the number of young drivers being killed and injured on Canada’s roads as a result of impaired driving. MADD Canada and MADD Toronto urge our provincial governments to take up the challenge of making our roads safer for young drivers, an age group which is over-represented in the impaired driving crash and fatality statistics.

Opportunities for Progress (see below) recommends a comprehensive approach for provincial governments to effectively reduce impaired driving fatalities among young drivers. It offers a series of recommendations involving regulatory measures dealing with the marketing and sale of alcohol to youth as well as enhancements to police enforcement powers.

The report’s centerpiece is a recommended, comprehensive three-stage graduated licensing program that would feature a zero BAC restriction for all drivers until the age of 21. MADD Canada President Karen Dunham believes this will impact the high rates of alcohol related fatalities among 18-20 year old drivers “because it provides an added safeguard for those inexperienced drivers who begin to drive unsupervised at the same time as reaching the legal drinking age. It helps to re-emphasize good drinking and driving behaviour - namely, when one drinks, one mustn’t drive.”

Other notable recommendations include:

1. police be given the ability to stop vehicles at random and demand documentation from both young drivers and any supervising driver;
2. implement targeted RIDE or spot check programs for areas that routinely generate large numbers of young impaired drivers;
3. police be given the ability to demand physical coordination testing of any driver they reasonably suspect has drugs in his or her body;
4. and, more rigorous enforcement of existing liquor laws in licensed establishments.

Opportunities for Progress was co-authored by Professors E. Chamberlain and R. Solomon of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario. The report provides the best recommended legislative reform measures that provincial and territorial governments can implement to reduce traffic crashes among Canadian youth.

Read it here:
Youth and Impaired Driving in Canada: Opportunities for Progress

* taken from www.madd.ca