Two weeks into the Ontario Provincial Police’s RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) campaign, 45 drivers in eastern Ontario have been charged with impaired driving, according to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
The campaign is run by the OPP during the holiday season or on long weekends. It’s a sobriety testing initiative that allows officers to perform random roadside checks to see if drivers are under the influence of drugs or alcohol behind the wheel.
The Festive RIDE program began on Nov. 21 and the OPP says officers have stopped nearly 1,000 vehicles.
The MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) president and chair of the Ottawa area, Valerie Keyes, tells CTV News impaired driving numbers have been concerning this year.
According to Keyes, the Ottawa Police Service has laid 752 impaired driving charges in 2024. One hundred and ninety-five collisions led to some of those charges, which also resulted in 12 fatalities.
“If you look at the Ottawa Police Service stats, it’s horrific,” Keyes says. “Those numbers, sadly, are not going down.”
“Most impaired driving incidents are the result of bad judgment. Somebody has taken that decision to get behind the wheel,” she added.
Keyes’ responsibilities with MADD also cover the eastern Ontario region, from Deep River to Brockville to Cornwall, and while alternatives to driving are harder to find in rural communities, the onus is still on the driver.
“What we want to see is people make that smart decision. If you know you are going to have to drive at the end of an evening, don’t drink, (and) don’t have anything,” she said.
More details to come