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Essex County recorded the highest number of impaired driving charges during the OPP’s annual West Region Festive RIDE campaign, despite seeing lower numbers than a year ago.
Officers laid 48 impaired driving charges from Nov. 21, 2024 to Jan. 1, 2025, down from the 2023 six-week campaign’s 59 charges.
Ontario Provincial Police provide service in the Essex County municipalities of Essex, Lakeshore, Tecumseh, Kingsville and Leamington.
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The west region covers 13 OPP-policed counties from Essex to Grey Bruce, Haldimand, Wellington and Brant in southwestern Ontario.
The next highest numbers were recorded in Oxford and Wellington counties at 32 each. Perth and South Bruce counties had the lowest number of charges at 11 each.
Overall there were 292 impaired driving charges laid during the 2024 Festive RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) campaign across the west region, arising from 1,938 RIDE check events, including 222 held in Essex County.
Charges were down in the region compared to 2023’s 353, as were warn-range suspensions for a blood alcohol level between .5 and .8, which tallied up to 19 this season compared to 55 over the same time period in 2023 when there were 2,446 RIDE check events.
The 2023 local campaign numbers saw a huge jump in impaired driving charges from the year before when 59 drivers were charged during the holiday enforcement campaign, up from 16 in 2022.
Officials called it a “considerable increase” at the time.
The Festive RIDE campaign is an annual police enforcement and education initiative aimed at taking impaired drivers off Ontario roads during the holiday season.
If you suspect that someone is driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, call 911 to report it.
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