Impaired driving rates are at an all-time low — but MADD Canada warns that increasing access to beer and wine in the province could change that.At a press conference with Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, Andrew Murie — who heads the national anti-drinking and driving group — said “every time a government loosens the rules, we pay it in human costs.”Wynne spoke of the slow change her government brought in after announcing in 2015 that grocery stores would carry beer and wine.“We have developed safe and responsible plans — whether it is broadening the availability of alcohol in grocery stores ... or whether in new changes we are going to be making in light of the federal changes in the legalization of cannabis,” she told reporters at the event at Addictions and Mental Health Ontario in downtown Toronto. “... They are big culture shifts and where we have to find balance.”PC Leader Doug Ford has said if elected, his party would allow alcohol sales in convenience stores. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has said the current system is socially responsible and works well.The latest statistics on drinking and driving indicate that while alcohol-impaired driving is on the wane, driving while under the influence of drugs or a drug-alcohol combination remains a huge concern, Murie said. MADD’s report is based on fatal car crash deaths in 2014, and it says the numbers are “significantly” understated as definitions of impairment vary and police also “frequently fail to detect or report the presence of alcohol in crashes in which they are unable to obtain the driver’s” blood-alcohol content. Across Canada, the total number of crash deaths involving alcohol is 13 per cent, involving drugs 26.9 per cent, and a combination of the two, 15.5 per cent. In total, more than 55 per cent of all car fatalities involved alcohol and/or drugs.In Ontario, 10.2 per cent of fatal crashes involved alcohol, 3 ...
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