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Don't Go Along for the R.I.D.E.

Posted on Thursday November 16, 2017
Deputy Chief Carrique speaks to students.
Deputy Chief Tom Carrique speaks to students about the impact of impaired driving.

After 10 years of launching the YRP festive R.I.D.E. season and the MADD York Region Red Ribbon Campaign, Kevin Frankish still sounds as passionate as he did in his first year in taking up the fight against impaired driving. 

On November 14, he asked students at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham to take out their phones - never far out of reach for teens aged 13 to 18. They recorded the television host as he pleaded with students' parents to champion the cause by promoting safety on the roads and offering kids a lift if they might be drinking. 

Frankish was joined by Deputy Chief Tom Carrique, Sergeant Karen Hodge and former MADD York Region president Kathy Mitchell in delivering this year's festive R.I.D.E. message: Don't go along for the R.I.D.E.

If your friend jumped out of an airplane without a parachute, or went out for a skate on paper-thin ice, would you follow him? Didn't think so. 

So when your friend gets behind the wheel after drinking, don't go along for the R.I.D.E. Stay out of the vehicle and call 9-1-1 if you suspect someone is driving drunk or high.

Last year, York Regional Police laid more than 1,600 impaired driving-related charges. That number has increased year over year for half a decade.