THUNDER BAY – Glenn Porter wants everybody to have a safe and fun New Year’s Eve celebration.
But that doesn’t mean city police officers will be turning a blind eye to those who put the rest of the public at risk.
The Thunder Bay Police Service traffic sergeant said officers will be out in full force Thursday night and warned there is no excuse for drinking and driving, especially considering extensive public education and awareness campaigns since RIDE programs were first deployed in 1977 and upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1985.
“We’re three decades into impaired driving interdiction. I think you’d have a really hard time finding somebody who doesn’t know what the consequences of driving impaired are,” he said.
“Everybody knows it’s a dangerous behaviour. Everybody gets it, I think. There are a few people that sometimes fail to make the proper plans but we’ll be there and watching for people who forget.”
The hope is that drivers will get the message and there will be no impaired driving arrests.
Porter advised party-goers, whether it be to a bar or private party, to make sure they have plans on how to get home or spend the night to avoid getting behind the wheel while drunk.
“Be responsible and enjoy. It’s certainly a night everybody does want to have a good time but do it responsibly and make sure nobody gets hurt,” he said.
This is forecasted to be one of the warmer New Year’s Eve nights in the past couple of years, with Environment Canada calling for an overnight low of just – 12C.
That’s a far cry from when 2014 began with a frigid temperature of – 40C and even last year, which was – 20C when people were ringing in 2015.
The police service is preparing for more activity this year.
“With this mild weather we’re seeing we are expecting it’s going to be a busy night, generally that’s the pattern we’ve seen in past years,” he said. “We hope nobody ends up getting into collisions and we hope nobody ends up getting arrested because of bad behaviour.”
