Provincial police in southwestern Ontario dealt charges out to more than one thousand drivers over the Labour Day weekend.
Members of the West Region Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were out on the roads for the last major travel weekend of the summer to make sure everyone got where they were going safely.
As a result of the campaign, police say a total of 1,479 charges were handed out to drivers in southwestern Ontario.
This year, officers noticed an increase in the number of people who got behind the wheel while over the legal drinking limit, and the number of those who failed to buckle up. The majority of the charges were related to infractions that police refer to as the “Big Four”, impaired driving, failure to wear a seatbelt, aggressive and distracted driving.
"Police wish to remind drivers that so far in 2022, 36 people have died on OPP-patrolled roads in seat belt-related fatal crashes across the province," a release from the West Region OPP read. "In the past ten years, 542 people have died in seat belt-related fatal collisions in Ontario."
Some of the charges laid over the 2022 Labour Day campaign include:
• Impaired Driving: 39 (24 in 2021)
• Speeding: 941 (953 in 2021)
• Distracted/Inattentive Driving: 9 (16 in 2021)
• Failure to Wear a Seat Belt: 62 (27 in 2021)
Police are advising drivers that no amount of alcohol or drugs in their system is safe when driving. If you suspect that someone is driving while impaired, you should call 911 to report it.
CORRECTION: MyNewsToday.ca previously reported that the West Region OPP laid a total of 1,051 charges during the Labour Day blitz. An OPP official has since clarified that the total number of charges dealt was 1,479, as not all the charges related to the “Big Four”.
