Don't drink and drive, speakers urge Manitoba students

High school students across Manitoba are learning about the devastating effects of drinking and driving from speakers who are all too familiar with the pain.

Manitoba Public Insurance is sending four speakers to more than 50 schools across the province as part of its annual Friends for Life series.

The month-long series aims to reach 30,000 teenagers with a message about the dangers of impaired driving.

This year's speakers include Joan Parsons, a British Columbia woman who has lost her teenage son, her brother, sister and brother-in-law in three separate collisions, all of which involved impaired drivers.

"When your child dies from something that is senseless and stupid and entirely preventable, it rips your heart out," she told students at Oak Park High School in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

The Friends for Life series is targeting young people, which Manitoba Public Insurance says are over-represented in impaired driving crashes and convictions.

"They're impressionable and they want to hear powerful messages and leave an impression with them that they can make the right choice and that alcohol and driving do not mix," said MPI spokesperson Brian Smiley.

Student Shira Brand, 16, says she only started driving a few months ago, but she already feels like she's taking her life into her hands when she gets behind the wheel.

"I am scared to drive just because I know that even though I am safe and thinking about that stuff, I know that a lot of people aren't," she said.

Parsons said she wants teens to know they are in control of their own decisions and can influence their peers not to drive after drinking.

"We just make a choice and then everybody has to live with the consequences," she said.