This month marks the 10 month anniversary of SGI’s Report Impaired Driving program.

The program was initially launched in Saskatoon in 2010, and was later expanded to the rest of the province the next year after seeing great success. While SGI were the masterminds behind it, it was put together with help from the Saskatchewan Liqour and Gaming Authority, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Students Against Drunk Driving.

Joe Hargrave, the Minister responsible for SGI, explains how the RID program works.

“What you do is, we ask you to do is, we ask you to call 911 and report it to the police, the suspected driver. You wanna give as much information as you can; you wanna give the car, the license, and what they’re doing. Are they driving all over the road? What are they doing, so the police have as much information as possible.”

Some of the signs to watch for that may indicate an impaired driver are:

• Drifting in and out of lanes
• Driving at inconsistent or unreasonable speeds
• 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 or leaving intersections too quickly or slowly
• Driving with windows open in cold or inclement weather
• Driving without headlights, failing to lower high beams or leaving turn signals on

While he doesn’t have any milestones that he’s expecting to reach, Minister Hargrave did share his expectations for the program in the next 10 years.

“We wanna continue on. It’s unfortunate, but there’s still 200 to 400 impaired driving charges per month, and so it’s still the case that people are still doing that. We think that the program, going forward, is going to be necessary. One day you hope that people won’t drive impaired, but they are, and the public want to help, which is good to see.”

From 2010 to 2019, the RID program has resulted in 2,870 Criminal Code charges, 581 roadside charges, in addition to 1,750 other charges.