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RCMP constables Mark Blacklock (centre) and Rob Dupuis (left) are congratulated on being named to Alexa’s Team by Alexa Middelaer’s parents, Laurel and Michael, during a ceremony held Wednesday in Kelowna. Alexa was killed at the age of 4 by a drunk driver in 2008. B.C. police officers who help take impaired drivers off the roads each year are named to a team created in her honour.
Targeting impaired drivers Alistair Waters awaters@kelownacapnews.com
Sixty-nine members of Alexa’s Team from the RCMP’s south-east division were recognized Wednesday at a ceremony in Kelowna. The team, made up of police officers who have each helped take 12 or more impaired drivers off the roads during the previous year, is named after four-year-old Alexa Middelaer who was struck and killed in the Lower Mainland eight years ago by a vehicle driven by a drunk driver. Alexa was standing at the side of the road with
Alexa’s team adds 69 police officers for their efforts to each take 12 or more drunk drivers off the road this past year. her aunt, petting a horse when she was killed. The officers recognized Wednesday in Kelowna join 246 other officers from across B.C. who were also named to Alexa’s Team for 2016. Their efforts, combined with tough new antidrunk driving laws, helped reduce the number of impaired driving related crashes in B.C. in the last five years by 52 per cent, say police, representing an estimated 238 lives saved, 54 last year alone.
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On hand for the Kelowna ceremony were Alexa’s parents Laurel and Michael Middelaer, who took a break from their personal involvement with the program. The Middelaers said they were very happy to be back to say a public thank you to the officers who help keep B.C. roads safe and to recognize them in the name of their daughter. “You make a difference,” Laurel Middelaer told the officers on hand for the
ceremony at Quigley Elementary School. “Look at what you’ve done. You have a systematic willingness to go above and beyond.” She said despite some “naysayers” criticizing B.C.’s tough crackdown on impaired drivers that includes immediate roadside suspensions for drivers found to be drunk behind the wheel, the officers should take great pride in the work they do. “To the naysayers, I say, ‘You were wrong.’” In the eight years that
the Alexa’s Team program has been going, B.C. has seen a substantial drop in the number of impaired drivers on the road, success that has stunned Alexa’s father Michael. “That’s why we want to be here to say a heartfelt thank you (to the officers),” he said. “The police are not often thanked for the work they do.” Each year, Alexa’s Team members receive a special team ball cap, a certificate individually framed by Alexa’s aunt and a personalized, handwritten note from the
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