The Ontario Provincial Police responded to seven fatalities and laid 8,870 charges province-wide over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Officers participated in Operation Impact, which targeted four main road behaviours between October 11 and October 14. Those offences include distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding or aggressive driving, and not wearing a seatbelt.
It was a busy weekend for OPP officers across Ontario, although, in Essex County, police laid 305 charges, including 173 for speeding, 18 for impaired driving, and 14 for not wearing a seatbelt.
Essex County OPP also charged two drivers with stunt driving, two with distracted driving, and 62 with other traffic-related offences. Officers also issued more than 160 warnings.
Of the thousands of charges across Ontario, 4,902 were for speeding, and 133 drivers were caught stunt driving.
Police fined another 388 drivers and passengers for not wearing their seatbelt, and 163 impaired driving charges were laid. There were 85 for distracted driving.
Of the seven fatalities, none of which were in Essex County, a pedestrian and three off-road vehicle riders died.
