By Charlotte Morritt-Jacobs - (@morrittjacobs on Twitter)

PARTY Program Comes to Southern Alberta

Apr 2, 2016 | 8:28 AM

ALBERTA – Students in southwestern Alberta are set to learn about the dangers of impaired and distracted driving.

The “Prevent Alcohol and risk-Related Trauma in Youth (party) program is hoping to educate students on how to take preventative measures and foster good decisions.

Over the next three months, around 300 students from the Pincher Creek, Fort Macleod, Taber and Crowsnest Pass areas will join health professionals, police officers, paramedics and injury survivors at hospital and community events for Alberta Health Services P.A.R.T.Y. program.

This is the first time Pincher Creek has hosted the Party program and Dr. Lena Derie-Gillespie, Medical Officer of Health for AHS South Zone said that young people living in the country will benefit most from these programs ahead of youth in urban centres.

“Youth living in rural communities spend more time travelling on alberta roads for school and other social and recreational activities,” she said.

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Dr. Derie-Gillespie also alluded to the likelihood of rural youth engaging in activities such as riding ATVs, dirt bikes or horses which come with their own risks.

The program will offer interactive, hand-on activities such as mock collisions where students learn about the dangers or drugs and alcohol, texting while driving and not wearing a seatbelt and speeding. It will also educate youth on the consequences of poor preventative decisions such as not wearing the appropriate protective gear like helmets.

Tara Tanner, Acting Principal, Matthew Halton High School, said that she hopes the partnership with various community members will better educate students.

“At this young age, teenagers sometimes believe they’re invincible,” she said.

Research indicates about that distracted drivers are 3 times more likely to be in a crash than attentive drivers (Alberta Transportation, 2011).

According to Alberta Health Services, since the introduction of distracted driving legislation five years ago, there have been more than 87, 000 convictions with a great proportion of accidents occuring where the driver was using a hand-held electronic device while driving.

The PARTY program dates back to 1986 in Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Centre where a registered nurse and mother of four daughters recognized a great number of families in her rural community affected from motor vehicle accidents that involved teens.

The program has grown to 24 locations in Alberta and 100 sites across Canada, the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Japan and Germany.

Party will take place in the following South Zone communities:

Pincher Creek – April 5, 12 and 20 (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.)

Fort Macleod – May 17 (9 a.m. to 2:40 p.m./Mock collision – 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.)

Taber – May 19 and 26 (9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m./Mock collision – 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.)

Crowsnest Pass – June 2 (9 a.m. to 2:20 p.m./Mock collision – 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.).