Full speed ahead: How liquor privatization could impact drinking and driving in Sask.
Saskatchewan has a complicated relationship with alcohol.
Among all Canadian provinces, Saskatchewan has the highest rate of impaired driving. The latest analysis by Statistics Canada from 2011 shows Sask. had a rate of 683 impaired-driving incidents for every 100,000 people in the province. The second place province, Alta, had a rate of 450 for every 100,000.
More recent stats from SGI in 2014 show 59 people killed in collisions involving alcohol while another 536 were injured. There were 1,133 collisions overall.
The numbers have improved since 2008, when 1,704 collisions involving alcohol killed 79 and injured 1,002. SGI associates the fall with more stringent penalties for drivers, including roadside suspensions put in place by the provincial government in 2014.