OPP urging ‘better decisions’ from drivers after spike in impaired charges over holidays

Provincial police are out with the their end of years statistics and are urging Ontario drivers to “make better decisions” behind the wheel after a year-over-year increase in impaired driving charges, including a significant spike during the holiday period.

In a post to X on Tuesday, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Sgt. Kerry Schmidt ran through the 2023 numbers and says impaired driving charges were up for the whole year compared to last, with a more than 20 per cent increase over the holiday period.

He says the annual festive RIDE campaign, which ran from Nov. 16 to Jan. 1, saw a total of 916 drivers charged with a total of 1,471 charges.

The OPP laid 196 charges in the week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, which Schmidt says marks a 21 per cent increase from the same week the prior year.

“We do this because people are dying as a result of preventable causes,” Schmidt says. “Please do your part, make better decisions and be a better driver.”

OPP say 404 people died from crashes in 2023 with 50 of the deaths stemming from a collision involving drugs or alcohol. The force laid more than 11,000 impaired driving charges throughout the course of the year, a 7 per cent increase from 2022.

The OPP also say there were 49 deaths in 2023 due to off-road or marine incidents. Schmidt added a that around one-third of the off-road deaths and around one-quarter of the marine deaths involved impairment.

He is urging anyone who witnesses a suspected impaired driver, or anything dangerous on the roads, to contact police.

In 2023, OPP said 812 motorists were pulled over and arrested, including 1,258 impaired driving offences handed out during the holiday RIDE campaign.