More than 900 drivers taken off the road during RIDE program: OPP

The holiday RIDE statistics have been released and the numbers aren’t encouraging.

According to the Ontario Provincial Police, nearly a thousand drivers were taken off the road between late November and Jan. 2.

In total 573 impaired driving charged were laid and more than 350 drivers were given roadside suspensions.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said many of those drivers claimed they only had a couple drinks and thought they were still fine to get behind the wheel.

“They think they can handle their booze, they’re a good driver, that alcohol doesn’t affect them,” he explained. “The problem is once you start putting alcohol in your system, you don’t realize how it’s affecting you because it’s impairing your judgement.”

Schmidt added that while the numbers haven’t dramatically increased over the last year, impaired driving is still happening far too often.

“They don’t really seem to be understand the risks that they’re putting themselves at and that they need to be held accountable for their actions,” he said.

But it isn’t just a few glasses of holiday cheer putting people at risk on the roads.

Schmidt said officers are seeing more cases of drivers impaired by drugs. He added that the OPP have officers specially trained to spot people who are high behind the wheel.

Last year 42 people were killed by impaired driving.