Winnipeg students get sobering look at drunk driving
Students in Winnipeg got a sobering look at what can happen when you drink and drive.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada hosted a screening of 24 Hours, a short film about drunk driving, at Elmwood High School on Tuesday morning.
The video will be shown across the province and reach more than one million students across the country, MADD Canada National president Angeliki Souranis said.
"It's a very hard age because they think it's not going to happen to them, it's not going to happen to someone they know or love or one of their friends," she said. "We are here to say it can happen to anybody, and you do have choice in trying to prevent it."
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 16- to 25-year-olds and alcohol is a factor in over 50 per cent of the crashes, MADD says. With prom and graduation season around the corner, it's an important time to reach out to students, Souranis said.
The video follows a group of teenagers heading to a party where their designated driver decides to drink. The dramatization is followed by true stories of people who have lost loved ones to impaired driving.
Student Jackson Nene, 16, said the video had a big impact.
"People think that only one drink or two drinks is not going to make them drunk or anything, but for kids, our tolerance level isn't high, and we can easily be affected by even one drink," he said.
"So we are too overconfident and our overconfidence gets us in accidents like that."
For Samuel Lopez, 15, the video made him think about the decisions he makes.
"It makes you think twice of who you are going with," he said.
There will be 109 presentations of the film at schools throughout the province, including 24 in northern Manitoba.
