The man who admittedly drove while drunk and ended up killing Cochrane teen Brandon Thomas has been sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars for his decision to get behind the wheel.
Whether the judge gave Ryan Jordan Gibson, 24, enough time behind bars for his actions (and more importantly the consequences of those actions) is debatable, but there is a harsh reality to this tragedy, and that’s that events like this will continue to happen regardless of whatever laws are put in place to stop it.
This raises a question that needs to be addressed, but before we do, something must be made clear. The Eagle is vehemently against anyone getting behind the wheel when they have ingested too much alcohol to do so.
But herein lies the question that needs to be addressed.
Many provinces, including Alberta, have taken a stronger stand against drunk driving, handing out suspensions and fines for those who choose to drive with a blood-alcohol level of .05 – nearly half of what has been the legal limit for decades.
Does this law put the magnifying glass on the wrong people?
Police need to be getting dangerous drivers off the roads before something happens like what occurred the tragic evening a Cochrane teen lost his life.
Gibson’s admitted alcohol level that disastrous night was between .17 and .18, more than double the .08 limit, clearly putting him in the category of a ‘drunk’ driver.
This is the type of driver that needs to be stopped, needs to the taken off the road, needs to be punished, needs to be the focus of police officers, not the couple that goes out for dinner on a Friday night and has a glass of wine with their meal and has a blood alcohol level of .05.
Why would we force our law enforcement resources to be handing out suspensions to drivers who have made the decision to be responsible and not get behind the wheel when drunk, when there are those who do not make that choice and put people’s lives at risk on our roads?
According to Statistics Canada, the number of impaired driving incidents increased from 2010-11 by two per cent, reporting 90,000 occurrences, up 3,000 from the previous year.
Since the 1980s, impaired driving had been on a steady decrease until it took an upward turn in 2007.
Young adults between the ages of 20-24 recorded the highest drunk driving rates in 2011.
Kelowna, B.C. and St. John’s, Nfld. have the highest incidents of impaired driving, while the Ontario cities of Ottawa, London, Kingston and Windsor had the lowest.
Stats Can also reveals that there are fewer convicted impaired drivers going to jail for their crime.
Less than one in 10 convicted drunk drivers spend time behind bars.
The law that targets those in the .05 blood-alcohol range makes it appear that our province is being tough on drunk driving, but in the end, when a police officer is taking the time to pull over John Doe, who just had a beer after work, process a driver’s licence suspension, get his car towed and send him on his way, the unfortunate reality is that there could be a Ryan Jordan Gibson on Highway 22, drunk, dangerous and most certainly deadly.
