This is a real question and a sincere question about the safety of the RIDE check during a COVID-19 outbreak.
We can all agree that drinking and driving is a scourge and dangerous at any time of the year. It causes numerous accidents, injuries and death all across Canada.
What I am questioning is the manner in which the RIDE checks are being conducted during the pandemic. I get nervous when a stranger outside my bubble gets within three feet of me, with or without a mask.
I don’t have any policemen in my bubble.
Now, police are asking me to allow them to get within one or two feet of me, almost face-to-face.
While they will never smell alcohol on my breath while I am driving, I cannot smell COVID-19 on their breath and neither can they on mine.
Did police seek medical advice on how to conduct RIDE checks safely or are they making up their own rules?
I’ve written Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo about this, but he hasn’t gotten back to me.
Could you get an answer for all of us who are following the rules please?
As for the police and the RIDE program, I don’t want the cure to be worse than the disease.
Frank H. Madigan, Capreol