The community of Estevan is committed to ending impaired driving. On Friday, February 16th, the Estevan Police Service held a meeting with community members to come up with ideas on how to decrease the number of impaired drivers on the streets. 

"It went very well," explained Estevan Mayor, Roy Ludwig. "We had a good representation. The only group we were missing, and we were disappointed with not being able to make it was the taxis."

"We had very good dialogue and we will be meeting again. We already had some good ideas that came forward."

He added that a coaster idea where an anti-impaired driving message is written on a coaster for the patron to see was a popular idea.

"One of the other comments that came out was perhaps when people do lose their license with the .08, that it be publicized. Because once it does go through the court system, the press does have the right to print that publicly."

However, the biggest theme that emerged was the idea that a plan must already be in place even before the first drink is served. 

"The main theme that really came through is that people have to make a conscious decision when they initially go out and they are going to have some drinks, whether that be in a restaurant or a bar, they have to have a game-plan formulated at that time. Because what history tells us is if you don't have a plan when you go out, lots of times, you're just not thinking straight and sometimes you end up convincing yourself that you're actually able to drive when in fact, that's the furthest thing from the truth."

He added that ride-sharing programs were discussed as well.

"We were hoping for more input from taxi drivers so hopefully next meeting we can get some from them. They have a system somewhat in place in Weyburn, we were thinking, with the input of the restaurants, what would work well for our community? Because of course, every community is a little bit different so what might work in Weyburn, might not work here."

"It was a very good initial meeting. There will be more meetings moving forward and hopefully, we can have some good concrete ideas that we can start moving on."

READ MORE: Estevan Police Service Hosts Successful Impaired Driving Meeting