Provincial Point of View
May 16, 2017
Wishing you an enjoyable Victoria Day Long Weekend!
SGI'S NEW IMPAIRED DRIVING PREVENTION CAMPAIGN SHOWS REAL LIFE IMPACT OF IMPAIRED DRIVING
This month, SGI is launching a new version of its emotionally-charged multi-media awareness campaign showing the void left behind when a loved one is killed by an impaired driver.
Every statistic is a person, and the 2017 campaign highlights 12 lives cut short because of the senseless decision someone else made to drive impaired. SGI is replacing the stock photographs used in the original 2016 campaign with photos of real Saskatchewan people killed by impaired drivers.
Ben Darchuk, a 53 year-old married father of three, was tragically killed in 2012 in a head-on collision with an impaired driver in Prince Albert.
“Ben was an amazing individual, husband, father and community member,” Ben's wife Leanne said. “With Ben gone there is now an unfillable hole in our lives. Nobody ever deserves to experience the tragic pain from a loss like this. There are no words strong enough to explain the feeling of having your husband robbed from you.”
The campaign also features Tanner Kaufmann, Adrienne Gardiner, Danille Kerpan, Quinn Stevenson, Brandy Lepine, and the Van de Vorst family (Jordan, Chanda, Kamryn and Miguire).
The human cost of impaired driving is sobering, considering that the 12 people featured in the advertisement represent only a fraction of the lives shattered every year in Saskatchewan due to impaired driving. Over the last decade, more than 600 people have been killed, and more than 4,000 injured in impaired driving collisions.
“I want to thank the families who came forward and agreed to share their stories,” Minister Responsible for SGI Joe Hargrave said. “Theirs are the shattered lives behind the faces of this campaign. Their goal – our goal – is that this campaign prevents others from experiencing the pain of losing a loved one because of someone’s decision to drive impaired. Too many lives have been lost and too many families have been torn apart due to impaired driving. It has to stop.”
Click here to read the entire news release.
