Almost every one has their roster of Christmas movies and TV shows they must watch every year. There is Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and Miracle on 34th street, but out of all of the Christmas movies, A Christmas Story ranks high on people’s list of favourites.
Out of all of the happy memories A Christmas Story brings for people, there is one sad memory to go along with it. In April of 2007 Bob Clark, the director of A Christmas Story, was killed when his car was struck head on by a GMC Yukon driven by a drunk driver. Clark’s 22 year old son Ariel was also in the vehicle, and he was killed as well.
The crash that took Clark’s life is the reason behind this Christmas PSA by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). It celebrates the movie everyone loves to watch at this time of year, but comes with a grave reminder not to drunk and drive.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpjZ_RekAZA]
It’s a tragedy when someone making the choice to drunk and drive ends up claiming a life, and losing Bob Clark to impaired driving is a sad ending to an otherwise happy story.
This PSA was created to remind people of lives lost to impaired driving, but it’s also a good reminder of how MADD wants to stop convicted impaired drivers from driving again. The group has worked hard in Canada to ensure there are mandatory ignition interlock programs for all federal impaired driving offenders, and they’d like to see reduced provincial license suspensions so people will be encouraged to install and drive with an ignition interlock.
Ignition interlock devices are the only way to stop a drunk driver before they can start their vehicle, and in addition to PSAs like this one, they’re part of the plan to end drunk driving in Canada. For more information on MADD’s PSAs program, take a look at MADD Canada’s website.