WELLINGTON COUNTY – Local police officials say now that they’ve launched their annual Festive RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) campaign, drivers can expect to see more police checks on area roads.
The annual program, which features police performing roadside checks to identify impaired drivers, launched on Nov. 18.
It runs until Jan. 2.
“One of the big reasons we focus on the holiday season this time of year is simply because of volume,” said Wellington County OPP spokesperson Josh Cunningham.
With more people entertaining and socializing at this time of year, Cunningham said it’s common knowledge that alcohol is often involved.
“So we target this time of year because of the volume of people that may be risking other people’s safety on the highways,” he explained.
“We look at the opportunity, whether it may be more impaired drivers out there, and [target] that.”
According to data provided to the Advertiser, the County of Wellington OPP has already performed 164 RIDE checks this year, up from 104 checks in 2020.
Wellington County OPP officers have also relayed 97 impaired driving charges so far in 2021, down from 114 charges in 2020.
Sometimes call for service impact the OPP’s ability to do RIDE checks, so police try to dedicate more time to it during the holiday season, Cunningham said.
“It doesn’t mean we negate or don’t do it other times of the year,” he added.
“We do fill a lot of our time with doing RIDE throughout the year – it doesn’t start and stop – it’s a yearlong campaign but this allows us to go public and let people know that we’re really going to be focused on this.”
Cunningham said drivers should “Expect to see us out on the highways, expect to see us engaging and enforcing and educating … and just take the time to drive responsibly, to take other people’s safety as well as your own into consideration.”
Officers performed RIDE checks at the corner of Waterloo Avenue and Wellington Street in Guelph on Nov. 30. Submitted photo
Cunningham added whether impaired driving numbers are up or down, the initiative to reduce those numbers this time of year is always there.
“We’re going to keep trying to impact as much as we can and hopefully reduce numbers of people that are out there driving drunk and therefore reduce the number of people that are killed or injured by drunk drivers,” he said.
He said the RIDE campaign will stop when the police can have everybody driving responsibly.
“We want to make sure that people take the same care with cannabis as they do with alcohol and choose to make alternatives when it comes to transportation when they’re intoxicated, whether by drug or alcohol,” he noted.
Cunningham’s advice to people this holiday season, and year-round, is to be responsible and plan ahead, noting there’s lots of modes of transportation out there, including online cab services, Uber and other ridesharing apps, or having a designated driver.
“For us at the OPP, targeting drunk drivers is only going to really work its best if the public shares our enthusiasm with stopping that behaviour, so we ask that the public help us to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the highway,” he said.
Cunningham is encouraging people to call 911 immediately if they suspect someone’s driving impaired.
People can also reach the Wellington County OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit a tip at www.csgw.tips.
“We know every moment a drunk driver’s on the highway, it could be an event that could end someone’s life,” Cunningham said.
