The Festive RIDE season is upon us and police will be out for next month and half doing their best to catch impaired drivers before more lives are lost.
Ontario Provincial Police from OPP's Central Region, along with their counterparts from Barrie police and South Simcoe police, officially launched the Festive RIDE campaign today during a news conference in the Sadlon Arena parking lot in the city's south end. The kick-off also included members of Victim Services of Simcoe County and MADD Barrie.
OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told BarrieToday there have already been 8,000 drug- or alcohol-related charges this year, with 2,000 collisions investigated by provincial police.
“Here we have people dying, 29 people dead already this year, because of alcohol- or drug-related collisions and that’s just what the OPP have investigated," he said. "It is pretty frustrating knowing these deaths are 100 per cent preventable."
The Festive RIDE campaign, which runs until Jan. 2, 2022, is led by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) and involves a collaboration with police services from across Ontario to keep roads free of alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers.
During the campaign, officers will be highly visible as they conduct RIDE spot checks 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Six people have died in collisions where impairment was a factor on OPP Central Region-patrolled roads in 2021.
Already this year, OPP Central Region officers have laid more than 1,800 charges for impaired driving and responded to 447 collisions involving impairment, of which 121 resulted in injury. That's a 22 per cent increase from last year.
Members of the public are reminded to plan to not drive when planning to drink or consume drugs. There are many alternative options to remove impaired driving from the picture, police say, such as a designated driver, taxi, ride-share services, public transit, or staying the night.
Schmidt also said he was thankful for many members of the community who he called the “extra eyes and ears” for police trying to curb impaired driving.
“We’re asking that if you see dangerous drivers, call 9-1-1 or call *OPP and that will put you right into contact with our communications centre,' the sergeant said. "We have received around 21,000 from the public that resulted in 8,000 charges this year alone.”
