A new campaign to combat impaired driving shows a more intimate and sobering look at what, or more accurately, who is lost as a result of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. SGI launched their ‘People Shouldn’t Disappear’ campaign this month depicting the stories of Saskatchewan residents who were killed due to impaired driving.

This is the continuation of the 2017 campaign where images and stories were shared of 12 Saskatchewan residents that were victims of impaired driving. The response was large according to SGI and this is why they decided to bring it back, this time showing a more intimate account of the lives lost.

Minister Joe Hargrave, who has worked very closely with the campaign, stated that it’s important for people to know that these are real people, that who they see [on ads] are not actors and the effect that impaired driving can have on those closest to us. Hargrave who has experienced losing someone he knew to impaired driving said that, “It’s different than losing someone to an illness, it’s different because it’s 100 per cent preventable.”

The province of Saskatchewan historically has been among the highest in the country for impaired-related accidents and deaths, something Hargrave said they are looking to change. He said that province-wide accidents related to drinking alone is down 40 per cent from last year and although these numbers are good, they are not going to stop and they hope to see the numbers continually decline.

One has to ask the question of why Saskatchewan has resided at the top end of the list, when asked, Hargrave expressed that once-upon-a-time, it wasn’t something that was necessarily frowned upon and that people need to know and learn that regardless if it was considered ‘ok’ at one point, that it is definitely not and people are losing their lives because of it.

The campaign has added three new stories to last years and will releasing the video’s throughout the month of August. To view the personal stories, visit SGI’s channel here.