The Weyburn Police Service is again addressing the issue of impaired driving.

Inspector Rod Stafford with the Weyburn Police Service explained those who get pulled over and charged are lucky.

“Yes, they’ve got a court process to go to, and will lose their license, and have some inconvenience in life, but nobody got hurt,” he said.

These statements come following news that charges are pending on a second Weyburn resident for impaired driving causing death. This is the second such case for Weyburn in less than three weeks.

Stafford feels the biggest change needed to reduce impaired driving in the city, and the province, is the attitude towards it.

He addressed it in an analogy, of how friends and family will chastise someone for stealing a steak from a grocery store, but the same won’t necessarily happen when someone drives impaired.

The provincial government is working on forcing the attitudes to change, including new legislation which was recently passed.

New drivers, and all those under the age of 21 will have a zero tolerance for alcohol. This would include the vehicle being seized, and license suspensions. For experienced drivers ,a blood alcohol level over .04 results in the vehicle being seized for three days as well. The rules also toughen the ignition interlock program, with it now being mandatory for anyone with a blood alcohol over .16, or refusing to provide a breath sample.

Stafford hopes Weyburn residents begin to get the message, and not get behind the wheel after drinking.

“Impaired driving has the potential to be immediately fatal and harmful for those involved,” he explained to Discover Weyburn. “We have to open that conversation up. We have it about other things, we need to start having it about impaired driving before it has any effect in my opinion.”