GOV'T WANTS MORE POWER FOR POLICE

The provincial government wants to give police more powers to deal
with drivers impaired by drugs.

On Tuesday, the NDP government introduced amendments to the Traffic
Safety Act which establish an immediate 24-hour licence suspension for
drivers who fail a standard field sobriety test (SFST).

That's a battery of roadside tests that police use to check for
impairment by making drivers walk and turn or stand on one leg and by
checking for involuntary eye movement.

"This is a way to get at impaired drivers who are obviously under the
influence of drugs," said Maynard Sonntag, the Minister responsible
for Saskatchewan Government Insurance, in an interview Tuesday.

"In the past, impaired drivers as a result of usage of drugs ... they
could have been easy to identify as impaired but it would have been
difficult for (police) to find grounds for them to be charged."

Sonntag said the test, which will supplement the use of breathalysers,
has to be incorporated into legislation before it can be used in court.

Saskatchewan will be the second jurisdiction, after Manitoba, to make
the SFST part of legislation.

"Some have questioned it but it's been tested in the courts in
Manitoba," said Sonntag.

Another amendment to the legislation imposes a 15-day driver's licence
suspension after a second .04 blood alcohol count violation within a
five-year period. Currently a driver with three .04 violations within
five years is subject to a 90-day suspension.

The government wants to pass the legislation during this fall's
sitting of the legislature and have it come into effect in June of
2006.

Sonntag said 53 people were killed and 786 were injured in
Saskatchewan last year in alcohol-related collisions.