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Police have nothing to hide when it comes to Festive R.I.D.E.

“Hopefully someone will see something about it on Twitter and think maybe I shouldn’t get behind the wheel of my car if the police are out and take a different path so I encourage that, we are not here to hide in any way, we are very visible and we want to make sure the public knows that.”
FestiveRIDEstopNov2016
Police stop drivers at the Wasi corners intersection this afternoon to kick off the Festive R.I.D.E. program. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The Festive R.I.D.E. season is a proactive initiative to target impaired drivers during the holidays and make East Algoma a safer place.

Constable Ken Ayres believes taking the risk of driving impaired can be an extremely costly venture if you get caught.   

“Selfishly, if they want to risk driving impaired or having consumed alcohol and having gone in their vehicle they need to know that in fact you are going to fight with a lawyer, lawyer’s are anywhere between $500 and $1000 an hour, you are going to take it to trial,” said the North Bay Police officer.   

“It’s going to cost you in excess of $20,000 to $30,000 and at the end of the day you could still get convicted, lose your license for a year and get another monetary fine.”  

Ayres was one of many police officers dressed in bright yellow at the Wasi Corners as the area police services came together to launch the Annual Festive R.I.D.E. campaign.  

“The important thing this is showing the community is that it’s not the OPP, it’s not the North Bay City Police, it’s not Anishinabek Police Service, we are all working on this together,” said Scott Hlady, OPP Northeast Region Traffic and Marine Inspector. 

“We are in full force and we work closely with our policing partners and our community partners to make sure that message has come. We picked today as a day to start the festive season or the kickoff but we are doing this all year round.”   

Police say they will be out at all times of the day, in different areas.  They also admit they don’t believe social media is the enemy when it comes to people using it to warn others about R.I.D.E. locations.  

“Definitely advertise that we are here we definitely want that message out there and that we are visible,” said Hlady.  

“Hopefully someone will see something about it on Twitter and think maybe I shouldn’t get behind the wheel of my car if the police are out and take a different path so I encourage that, we are not here to hide in any way, we are very visible and we want to make sure the public knows that.”


Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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