2 new names added to Manitoba memorial for drunk-driving victims

Two new names were added to Manitoba's memorial for drunk driving victims on Saturday.

Every year, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) invites friends and family who have lost loved ones to visit a memorial in West St. Paul that was built to honour victims of drunk drivers.

"It's an opportunity for people who have lost friends and family to impaired driving crashes, and it's just a place that's safe for them to grieve together," Tanya Hansen Pratt, the national president of MADD Canada, told Radio-Canada at the memorial.

In total, there are 86 names inscribed on the monument, she said.

"This doesn't need to happen. Impaired driving is so easy to prevent and people are just not getting the message."

Manitoba is a leader when it comes to combating drunk driving, Hansen Pratt says, but there is more work to be done as lives continue to be lost.

Any amount of impaired driving is too much, she said.

"There's always a way to get home safely."

Krista Brown's partner, Martin Paul Robak, is one of the new names to be included on the monument. Robak was killed by a drunk driver on Nov. 16, 2018, she said.

Brown urges Manitobans not to get behind the wheel while impaired.

"Our family and our lives have been ruined forever," she said.

"There will always be a void in our hearts."