The Olds and Area Traffic Safety Committee (OATSC) will be introducing a new program in early 2012 to help spread awareness on impaired driving and encourage communities within Mountain View and Red Deer counties to report suspected impaired drivers.The Report Impaired Drivers (RID) program is a campaign that aims to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road by bolstering residents to call RCMP when they suspect a driver is impaired, rather than just ignore them.ìWe want to see less people drinking and driving and more people watching for them. Police resources are already spread so thin,î said OATSC vice-chair Len Wagner. ìBut if a person knows that the community is watching them, maybe they will make a better decision.îThis is the first time the RID program will be taking effect in a rural area, Wagner said. RID was first introduced to Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton, which saw a 67 per cent increase in reported impaired drivers after implementation.The official launch of RID will take place at the Jan. 7 Olds Grizzlys game, where OATSC members will be on hand to give a presentation about the program as well as hand out promotional items, such as water bottles and specialized notepads that easily indicate where someone can write down a suspected driver's licence-plate number, vehicle model and vehicle colour to have available when reporting to the RCMP.OATSC will continue to promote the RID program at other hockey and some basketball games in Olds and other communities.ìHockey is a Canadian thing, but so is drinking. We don't want people to not drink, but to do so responsibly and not drive,î said Wagner, adding that hockey and drinking often go hand in hand as well.OATSC originally started in Olds following an Alberta-wide study on impaired driving, where Olds was one of the communities researched. Since then OATSC has spread to include Bowden, Innisfail, and recently Didsbury and Carstairs, and all rural areas in between.ìThe program is in line with what we're trying to do,î said Sgt. Jeff Jacobson of the Didsbury RCMP, who met with Wagner and OASTC chair Stephanie Catudal on Dec. 15 to discuss the program. ìWe encourage people to call in and keep the roads safe.îOATSC will be working with the Didsbury RCMP and other detachments to help determine if there is a substantial increase in impaired driver reports once RID is launched.Jacobson added that the RID program also coincides well with RCMP's recent efforts to step up checkstops over the holiday season, and the new provincial impaired driving law on the horizon.OATSC holds meetings every third Tuesday of the month at Olds College. Meetings are open to the public.
