The holidays and New Year period always seem a likely time for impaired driving. While DUIs are a persistent issue around Toronto, Ontario Provincial Police statistics have shown that the number of GTA impaired driving charges laid has actually been decreasing each year since 2015. In fact, they're down significantly over the last five years. OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt shared the data on people driving while intoxicated for each year from 2015 to 2019, and it makes for interesting reading. According to the tweet sent out on Thursday, Jan. 2, the total charges for impaired driving in 2019 lies at 1,342 throughout the whole year. That's actually down by over 100 from the 2018 total. When you look further back, the difference is even more noticeable. In fact, the figure has fallen annually over the last five years. 2019's 1,342 charges represents more than a 23% decrease from 2015's 1,753. Schmidt's tweet adds that the OPP has laid a total of 7,539 impaired driving charges in the GTA over that five-year period, as well as investigating more than 2,200 collisions involving drugs or alcohol since 2016. However. while that downward trend is nice, it doesn't mean the problem doesn't still exist. The #OPP have laid 7539 impaired driving charges in the #GTA in the past 5 years. 2019 - 13422018 - 14552017 - 14502016 - 15392015 - 1753We have also investigated over 2200 collisions since 2016 where drugs/alcohol were involved. 🚫🍺🚘#AimForZero pic.twitter.com/mo64MpI91U— Sgt Kerry Schmidt (@OPP_HSD) January 2, 2020 For a start, it should be noted that these are only statistics on charges laid in the Toronto area by the Ontario Provincial Police. As such, they don't take into account the work of other more localized services such as Toronto Police, Peel Police, or York Regional Police. For example, York Regional Police's efforts alone saw 1,700 people charged with DUIs during 2019. 109 people charged with with impaired driving during the 2019 #FestiveRIDE campaign in the #GTA. 552 #RIDEChecks conducted between Nov 23-Jan 2.#AimForZero pic.twitter.com/uwTwKoDKCE— Sgt Kerry Schmidt (@OPP_HSD) January 3, 2020 Police services are currently wrapping up their festive RIDE programs. That's Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere, in case you didn't know. According to another tweet from Schmidt, 109 people were charged with impaired driving out of the 552 ride checks conducted in the GTA. Toronto's some way behind Ottawa's standard on that score, it seems. Ottawa Police stopped more than 250 drivers for checks during the evening of Dec. 23, and not a single one was found to be under the influence. The Ontario RIDE program ran from Nov. 23 to Jan. 2. The OPP's numbers may be down, but there were still plenty of notable incidents in 2019. For example, the intoxicated man who drove himself to a police parking lot. Or the person who crashed into a TTC shelter. Or perhaps the Toronto driver who somehow allegedly managed to hit 15 different cars and one house before attempting to flee. While the OPP numbers have fallen for the fifth year running, there's certainly still room for improvement in the GTA. There are stories everywhere. If you spot a newsworthy event in your city, send us a message, photo, or video @NarcityCanada on Twitter and Instagram.
