2 YOUR COMMUNITY | NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 Kia LE ae bee, Eliane PROCEEDS TO! CANADIAN SOC! ze 5 (WegT VANCOLIVER UNIT) i _| f LAP aty GIRL GULDE Taryn Dobson (holding basket) and Cancer Society Holly Days chairman Mary Chenier prepare for a holly sale to aid the West Vancouver unit of the Canadian Cancer Society. The holly will be sold in six locations at Park Royal Mall from {€ a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 13. All proceeds will go to West Vancouver’s Cancer Society unit for patient programs, education and research. PE oF te Ga They are the Champs PAGE 27 BSG ACER THE ANNUAL Christma Coping with cancer PAGE 47 e . . . xf teas DR Gu DRY ete campaign to remove drinking drivers from B.C. roads shifted into overdrive Monday. Around PLCL, ROMP and munivipal police forces will cheek anoestimated 200,000 fo 300,000 vehicles during the Dee. & to tia, TO) Chostimas CounterAtetck Roadcheck Blitz. Nerth Shore police forces will be mMaitaming what is now a year round program of roadside checks for drinking drivers and add to it what North Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Ewen Freethy calls a ‘flying atack “With othe extra manpower needed at Fxpo a lot of people (ROMP officers) are taking their holidays now,” Freethy said Mon- day. ‘Sa we are going to be doing the best we can with what we've pot’ Freethy said massive bighway road blocks using BAT (blood- alcohol testing) mobiles and large teams of police, especially with reduced available manpower, are not the most efficient way to catch drinking drivers. Quick IS to 20-minute spot cheeks close ta night-clubs and other aianking establishments, he said, were fur more effective. “T guess vou could call it quafity not quantity.”” he said. West Vancouver Police will be conducting similar spot checks. “But ivs something we do fre- quently all) year round,’ West Vancouver Police Cst. Dave Bingham said Monday. ‘'So we are not going to be increasing the pro- gram by any significant amount (during the CaunterAttack Blitz)” Freethy said the local police forces and the growing public awareness of the trawedies and destruction that result trom drinking and driving are gradually changing public attitudes toward driving while impaired. especially during the Christmas season, Vigilance of “Ves, it's getting better. Statistics show thar you have the least chance of being hit by a drunk driver at this time of year. People are finally realizing that it (drinking and driving) is not worth the hassle.” Drivers convicted of their first drinking und driving offence now face an automatic f2-month licence suspension, a fine of up to $2,000, 10 penalty points on their driving record and a possible six- month jail sentence. A second conviction now carries mandatary jail sentences of [4 days to six months. “And we get a lot of second of- fences these da,..'’ Freethy said. “T's scary.” Any impaired driving conviction results in a criminal record. A charge of impaired driving causing bodily harm carcies a max- imum penalty of 10° years im- prisonment. Impaired driving causing death carries a maximum 14-year jail term. Freethy said 24-hour roadside suspensions will also be used dur- ing CounterAttack. Anyone caught: driving while suspended, he said, faces a man- datory seven-day jail term. According to provinctal CounterAttack figures the number of alcohol-related traffie accidents during the Christmas season has dropped trom 20 per cent of all traffic accidents in 1977 when the program began, to eight per cent in 1985, The alcohol-related casualty ac- cident rate is now five per cent during the Christmas CounterAt- tack blitz. which is 300 per cent lower than the rest of the year.