By Greg Higgins

Police watching for impaired drivers this weekend

Dec 2, 2016 | 4:28 PM

Tomorrow police will be cracking down on those driving under the influence as part of National Impaired Driving Enforcement Day.

According to Sgt. Chris Stephens with the North Battleford detachment, the day isn’t about statistics.

“The biggest thing about this is education,” Stephens said. “A lot of people think we are just trying to boost our numbers and that isn’t the case. We want to make sure the general public is aware of the dangers that come with impaired driving. Our wish is that we would never pull over an impaired driver in every car we pull over.”

Stephens said the RCMP will pull drivers over at random and if they are sober, police will educate them about the dangers of impaired driving in hopes they will spread the word to family and friends.

He added officers will not be setting up check stops at specific locations during particular times. Police on patrol will be simply make random stops.

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Stephens said he hopes enforcements like these will increase awareness and reduce numbers.

“There [are] just too many alcohol or drug-related impaired related collisions that cause either serious injury or unfortunately death,” Stephens said. “Those are 100 per cent preventable. If that person had not decided to drink alcohol or do the drugs and then drive it could have been avoided. That’s kind of the message we are trying to get out there.”

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.