Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 16/02) - Waving bright red glow sticks and screaming through the falling snow, several dozen students braved cool temperatures Tuesday morning to warn motorists against drinking and driving.

Standing and jumping alongside Franklin Ave. in front of the fire hall, members of Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) from St. Patrick and Sir John Franklin high schools carried banners and chanted slogans. It was part of an awareness morning linked with national students against drunk driving day.

"Friends don't let friends drink and drive or speed!" chanted the students as passing cars honked their support in the -10 C weather as they held signs like "A cab is cheaper than a lawyer."

Students came to the fire hall around 7 a.m., greeting the morning traffic rush until just after 8:30.

"It's so great that a lot of people are getting involved," said Stacy Underhay, co-president of the St. Pat SADD and a Grade 11 student.

Drinking and driving "is a big problem -- not a problem that's talked about a lot, but we all know it's there and we need to help get rid of it," she said. "A lot of people do it by peer pressure and that's a big factor. (SADD) shows that it's OK not to drink, and that you can still have fun."

Michele Thoms, who has co-ordinated the St. Pat SADD since its inception in 1994, said the impaired driving rate in the NWT is more than double the national average.

But drunks in cars are a national problem as well. Thoms says there are fewer murders than drunk driving deaths in Canada every year, and nationwide an injury is caused every five minutes by drunk driving.

The message is getting through to students.

"I want to stop drinking and driving because I think it's horrible. So many people get hurt and die because of it," said Grade 10 student Lindsay McKay, who said the event was also fun. "We get to yell and scream and wake up the people from Northlands so they're not late for work," she said.

The problem, said Thoms, is getting the message through to people age 24-36, the highest-risk group for drunk driving. That's one of the reasons behind the Tuesday morning awareness rally.

The territorial government is also considering new legislation on impaired driving. Transportation Minister Joe Handley has proposed a series of measures including automatic 24-hour license suspension for anyone with a blood alcohol content (BAC) between 0.05 and 0.079 and a possible license suspension of one to five years for anyone with a BAC of 0.08 or greater.

That legislation, however, has not yet been introduced in the legislative assembly. Current penalties are a fine of at least $600 for a first offence, at least 14 days in jail for a second offence and 90 days in jail for any offences following. A person is guilty of an offence when their BAC is higher than 0.08, and can be subject to licence suspension or imprisonment according to a judge's sentencing.

Meanwhile, students at the fire hall were drinking hot chocolate, eating donuts and wearing out their voices.

"You have to make it fun and jump around," said Matthew Harvey, a Grade 9 student who moved to Yellowknife from Australia this January. "Or else you're going to freeze."