Four RCMP officers from the Sea to Sky region were recently honoured in Surrey for their roles in making the roads safer by catching drunk drivers as part of a yearlong anti-drinking and driving campaign.
Those honoured were Cst. Shean Kidd and Cst. Evo Sokerov of the Squamish RCMP Cpl. Brad Matchett and Cst. Scott Stables of Whistler/Pemberton RCMP.?The officers were among 355 officers who took part in the 2011 campaign, which was started in memory of four-year-old Alexa, who was killed by a drunk driver in Surrey in 2008.
During the yearlong campaign, officers all over B.C. caught 12,923 impaired drivers.
"I'm still astounded at the problem," Alexa's mother Laurel Middelaer said in a statement.?
After the death of her daughter, Middelaer started the Alexa's Team campaign in 2008 as a way to combat drunk driving in Metro Vancouver. Since then, the campaign has grown to cover all of B.C. and there have been 32,743 charges laid or penalties imposed in the four years.?
Middelaer said that she was "quite overwhelmed with the response" of the campaign, and thanked the officers present during the ceremony, which was held at the school where she was principal and where Alexa would have gone to were she alive today.
When asked what Alexa might have thought of the large room full of police officers being commended for their work against drunk driving, Middelaer replied, "She's a pretty gritty little girl. She would have loved the officers, they would have been right up her alley. I think it's very appropriate for men and women like this to be a part of her team."
