Andrea Bannish was a new bride with a bright smile and she was the fifth person to die in a drunk-driving related crash in Manitoba in the past three weeks.
"Words can't even say how bad I feel for Andy's family, she just got married a month ago," says her friend, Kyle Kenyon.
Kenyon worked with Bannish for five years. He's angry that he lost his friend to drunk driving.
"I am very angry. It's very upsetting. It's senseless. People aren't thinking," Kenyon says.
Doug Mowbray lost a son to drunk driving. He now works with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
"There's been so many deaths in such a short period of time. It's been years since this has happened," Mowbray says.
Bannish was killed Nov. 18 at Mercy Street and Vaughn Road in Selkirk in the fourth fatal, drunk-driving related accident since Halloween. A 22-year-old man, Brett Yasinsky, was killed at Highway 8 and Grassmere Road on Nov. 10. A young man was killed in the RM of Argyle on Nov. 8. Two teenaged girls were killed at Bishop Grandin and St. Mary's Road on Nov. 1.
MADD and RCMP officers have been warning the public about drinking and driving for decades, but somehow that hasn't been enough to stop people from drinking before getting behind the wheel.
"Unfortunately the message is not getting through," says Sgt. Line Karpish, an RCMP spokesperson.
Karpish says alcohol is a factor in almost half of all fatal collisions.
-with a report from CTV's Jeremy Hunka
