Drunk drivers to be revealed

On average, four people are killed every day across Canada at the hands of impaired drivers. That’s why Niagara police are adding another weapon in their arsenal to combat drunk driving by publicly shaming those who’ve been charged.

In the past four years in Niagara region, 3,000 people have been charged with impaired driving. Half of those were nabbed in a ride spot check. And to Sgt. Neal Orlando those numbers are disturbing: “It says the message is not being received by everybody. The message is out there.”

Not only is the message out there, but starting next week, Niagara police will be releasing the names of every person charged with impaired.

Police say it will be a deterrent. “Maybe I don’t want my name in the newspaper. Maybe I don’t want my neighbour or my employer finding out I was charged with an offence.”

There are people who like the idea: “Just because it’s a safety thing for people.”

And then there are those like Ron Johnson who don’t: “I would say no. People make mistakes. You know what I mean?.”

Johnson says the public shaming should only apply to repeat offenders: “They keep drinking and driving. So yes, those names need to be in the paper.”

The statistics are staggering. In 2010 across Canada, more than 25-hundred people were killed on the roads. In more than half of those cases the drivers were drunk.

In Niagara Region, the numbers don’t look much better. In the past decade, nearly 650 people have been killed or critically injured on the roads. A third of those crashes have been caused by someone impaired by drugs or alcohol.

Sgt. Orlando: “That’s one in three. And that’s an enormous amount of carnage on our roadways, that could have been prevented had people just made the right decisions.”

Now everyone charged so far in Niagara’s Festive Ride will have their names published on Monday, December 23rd. Police will be releasing the names every Monday after that. Other police forces do this including Sudbury and Durham.