Impaired driving victim honoured

Ten years after he was killed in a collision involving an impaired driver in 2016, Robbie Anderson’s name has been added to MADD Canada’s Manitoba Memorial honouring those killed in drunk and drug-impaired-related crashes.

His older brother Chris Anderson, was one of two dozen people who gathered at the Glen Eden Funeral Home and Cemetery in West St. Paul Saturday to remember their loved ones, 86 victims whose names are etched into the granite monument near the heart of the graveyard.

“It’s heavy,” said Anderson when asked what it was like to be part of the ceremony and see his brother’s name added. “It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”

Grateful for MADD’s work and its efforts to honour Robbie, who was 27 when he died, Anderson said his brother, represented the “absolute best of us.”

“He was always so full of life,” said Anderson. “He lived life wide open. He just had such a zest for life. Always positive. Had a million friends and just really feeling the loss.”

From a family of first responders, and a former first responder himself, Anderson said he supports MADD’s mission to combat drunk and impaired driving, experiencing the devastation the crime can have both with the loss of his brother and with other victims.

Anderson said his brother would have just celebrated his birthday on Aug. 8, so this time of year and the 10-year-anniversary of his passing, have weighed on him. Robbie’s name, alongside the names of the others on the monument were read out at the ceremony, a bell rung and candle light for them all. As names were read, family members in attendance would stand up, their loss recognized.

Attending the event with his wife Rachael, Anderson said being with others who have experienced such a loss has helped.

“Grief is an interesting thing; it’s often solo,” he said. “Being able to share with other families and understand there is support, not only through MADD, but through their experience as well, is really important. It means a lot.”

Anderson died after RCMP in Swan River reported in 2016 that four men were thrown from a vehicle when the it left the road and crashed into a hydro pole near Minitonas, a town about 15 kilometres east of Swan River.

Emergency crews were called to the scene just after 5 a.m. April 30, 2016, and found the four men. All four were transported to the nearest hospital, with Anderson later dying. At the time, RCMP said alcohol was believed to be a factor.

Drunk and drug-impaired crashes continue to claim lives on Manitoba roads today, as in late July, Manitoba RCMP alerted the public to a high number of fatalities being logged in the first seven months of 2026, with alcohol and/or drug impairment either confirmed or suspected in 12 of the year’s 48 deaths.

Representatives from the province and both the Manitoba RCMP and the Winnipeg Police Service were in attendance at the event Saturday. They thanked MADD for their work and their partnership, while recommitting themselves in their work to stop impaired driving directly to people whose lives have been changed as a result.

“Today is remembering people, not just statistics,” said Winnipeg Police Service traffic services and road safety lead, Insp. Helen Peters. “Because behind every name, every story and every life represented here, is a person who is loved, who mattered, and whose absence continues to be felt by families, friends and communities across Manitoba.”

Peters said it the stories of these preventable tragedies that remind all members of law enforcement about the importance of their work, and partnerships with organizations like MADD, to bring impaired driving deaths to zero.

“Let us honour the lives remembered here today, not only with our words, but with actions, and most importantly, let us continue working together towards a safer Manitoba.”

MADD Canada national president Tanya Hansen Pratt hosted the event while also honouring her mother Beryl Hansen, killed by a drunk driver in Portage La Prairie on April 20, 1999.

“I want people to understand that the devastation doesn’t end at the scene of the crash, it goes on for us for a lifetime,” she said.

She said enforcement and education continue to be key in preventing impaired-driving deaths and injuries, but the organization is also lobbying Ottawa to require all new vehicles be built to recognize when someone is impaired.

“Some of the technology that’s necessary is already installed in a lot of vehicles on the road and we just need to take advantage of that,” she said, pointing to things like systems that prevent lane departure and monitor a driver’s eye movements.

“This could potentially save so many lives and prevent a lot of injuries,” she said.

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca