Vigil, monument memorializes Manitobans killed by drunk drivers

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This article was published 26/08/2023 (842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WEST ST. PAUL — Nearly 100 candles — each representing the life of a person killed by a drunk driver — wavered at the Glen Eden Funeral Home and Cemetery Saturday, as family and friends gathered in remembrance of their loved ones.

The vigil, hosted by the Winnipeg chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, saw victims Oksana Dutchyshen, Quinn Dutchyshen and Jordyn Reimer added to the organization’s provincial memorial, which sits on the cemetery grounds.

The granite monument now memorializes 84 Manitobans killed by drunk drivers. MADD Winnipeg adds names at the request of families and hosts an annual ceremony to honour new additions.

“I want people to see the affect that impaired driving has,” incoming MADD Canada president Tanya Hansen Pratt said, speaking after the vigil.

“It doesn’t end at the scene of the crash and that’s often what the public sees, so they don’t identify this as a violent crime, which it is. It causes horrible violent deaths and injuries.”

Sisters Oksana, 6, and Quinn, 4, were killed in August 2019 after the vehicle they were passengers in was struck by a drunk driver outside of Dauphin.

Jack Winters, 28, faced 15 charges relating to impaired and dangerous driving causing death, but was acquitted on grounds of reasonable doubt in June. He is considered innocent in the court of law.

Reimer, 24, was acting as a designated driver when a pickup truck crashed into her vehicle at the intersection of Bond Street and Kildare Avenue West in Winnipeg last May.

Tyler Scott Goodman, 29, pleaded to impaired driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of a crime earlier this year. He has yet to be sentenced.

According to data from Manitoba Public Insurance, an average of 26 people are killed as a result of impaired driving annually across the province. As of July, the year-to-date total was seven.

“The RCMP and other police services are doing everything they can, working tirelessly, to try and help solve this problem,” RCMP Sgt. Cathy Farrell said during the service.

The Mountie, who works in RCMP’s traffic services division, assured grieving friends and family that police are enforcing mandatory alcohol screening legislation introduced by the federal government in 2018.

The law allows police across the country to stop and test any driver for potential alcohol consumption without the need for reasonable suspicion.

RCMP in Manitoba have made alcohol screening a standard practice in all traffic stops, and Farrell said she believes police elsewhere are doing the same.

“We’re continuing the fight,” she said.

Hansen Pratt, who previously served as vice-president of MADD Winnipeg, is to become the organization’s national leader on Oct. 1. She will serve a three-year term with the explicit goal of supporting families and ending drunk driving, she said.

“The message is a simple one: don’t drink and drive, don’t operate any kind of vehicle while impaired by drugs or alcohol. It’s just not worth it. It’s so easy, especially in the age that we live in to find another way,” Hansen Pratt said.

“There’s no excuse.”

MADD Canada has provincial monuments in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Quebec. It will unveil another in Ontario in September and plans to develop more in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island.

People seeking support, or who wish to add a name to the Manitoba memorial, can connect with MADD Winnipeg online or by phone at 1-800-665-6233.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca