With the holiday season just around the corner, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada is partnering with a Canadian trucking company to make sure impaired drivers are taken off the road.
Westcan Bulk Transport, a company with offices in Coquitlam and operating throughout western Canada, the Northwest Territories and Ontario, is alerting the public to the dangers of impaired driving and how they can help by calling 911.
As many as 40 of Westcan's transport trucks will be sporting new decals urging motorists to call 911 to report suspected impaired drivers.
Last Friday, representatives from MADD, Coquitlam RCMP, city officials and the company were joined by Jeremy Cook, who suffered extensive injuries in an accident caused by an impaired driver, in a press conference kicking off the awareness campaign.
Cook is the face of the mobile awareness campaign and his photo will accompany the campaign message of the importance of helping police take dangerous impaired drivers off the roads before they cause crashes like the one that changed his life.
“Impaired driving claims lives and causes life-changing injuries every day,” Cook said in a MADD press release. “No one should ever have to go through this.
"I’m sharing my photo and my story so that people can better understand the consequences of impaired driving, and so that they’ll call police if they see a driver they think might be impaired.”
Cook was just 15 years old on Oct. 11, 2013 when the car he was riding in was struck by an impaired driver who was travelling at high speed and ran a red light. He suffered serious injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, several broken bones, a collapsed lung and long-term damage to his eyes. He endured four years of physiotherapy and regular visits to doctors, specialists and pain programs. He has suffered nearly daily migraines, and has nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Westcan Bulk Transport, meanwhile, has been working with MADD to raise awareness about the 911 campaign since 2012 and has decals on 240 of its truck trailers.
“Road safety is a major priority in our business,” said Howard August, executive vice-president of Canadian operations, Westcan Bulk Transport. “We are honoured to share Jeremy’s story, and the stories of others victims, in the ongoing effort to prevent these senseless tragedies.”
10 Possible Signs of an Impaired Driver
• Driving unreasonably fast, slow or at an inconsistent speed.
• Drifting in and out of lanes.
• Tailgating and changing lanes frequently.
• Making exceptionally wide turns.
• Changing lanes or passing without sufficient clearance.
• Overshooting or stopping well before stop signs or stop lights.
• Disregarding signals and lights.
• Approaching signals or leaving intersections too quickly or slowly.
• Driving without headlights, failing to lower high beams or leaving turn signals on.
• Driving with windows open in cold or inclement weather.
If you suspect an impaired driver, call 9-1-1, when you can safely pull over. More information is available at madd.ca.
– source: MADD Canada
