Number of people charged with drinking and driving offences during holiday period basically the same as 2012.

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON.

January 6, 2014

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) reported a significant drop in the number of impaired driving charges officers laid during their province-wide 2013 Festive Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) Campaign.

The campaign, which ran across the province from Nov. 23 to Jan. 2, 2014, resulted in 578 impaired driving charges being laid by OPP officers. Another 481 Warning Range Suspensions were issued.

By comparison, OPP officers laid 693 impaired driving charges during the 2012 campaign and issued 625 Warning Range Suspensions.

It’s time consuming work =- but this year it kept 15 people with too much alcohol in them off the roads.  Time well spent.

While the OPP indicated they were pleased to see the lower numbers associated with the 2013 Festive RIDE campaign, they said the charges serve as a reminder that a small number of impaired drivers threatened the lives of other road users over the holidays.

Locally the picture was about the same as last year with fewer cars stopped but the number of charges laid the same as 2012.

The Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (R.I.D.E.) program remains a key deterrent against drunk driving. R.I.D.E. spot checks are conducted year round, with an emphasis placed on holidays and long weekends when higher volumes of traffic and opportunities to drink and drive are present.

R.I.D.E. 101 was an innovative pilot project created by the Halton Regional Police Service in 2006 to educate young drivers about the risks associated with impaired driving. The three-phase program geared towards high school students includes on-campus demonstrations and displays, as well as actual driver spot checks.

Follows are the results of the 2012 R.I.D.E. holiday campaign for Burlington which ran from December 1st-31st:

Vehicles stopped: 6,075

  • Roadside breath tests: 208
  • Pass tests: 192
  • Warn tests: 13
  • Fail tests: 3
  • Impaired charges: 5
  • Over 0.08 charges: 8

The Halton Regional Police recently appointed a new Media Relations officer: Sgt Chantal Corner,  who advises us that their number for the 2013 RIDE program were as follows:

4,125 cars were stopped during the R.I.D.E campaign

203 Roadside tests were administered with 172 pass tests, 22 warns and 9 fails. 

Three charges of Impaired Driving were laid and 12 charges of Over 80 mg.

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1 comment to Number of people charged with drinking and driving offences during holiday period basically the same as 2012.

  • Susan Lewis

    Whenever I see R.I.D.E., I still think of it as Reduce Impaired Driving in Etobicoke.

    The R.I.D.E. program was started in Etobicoke in 1977.