Saskatchewan

Impaired driving in Sask. down in January over December

According to SGI, there were 221 reported impaired-driving related offences across the province in January, which is less than December and January 2017.

SGI reports 221 impaired-driving related offences

Photograph of a man reaching for keys while drinking whiskey
SGI says there were 153 criminal code charges, 68 roadside suspensions and various other traffic offences related to impaired driving in January. (Shutterstock)

It seems some people in Saskatchewan are sticking to a new year's resolution not to drive impaired.

According to a news release by SGI, there were 221 reported impaired-driving related offences across the province in January.

That's lower than December, which had 238 impaired-driving related offences, and lower than January 2017, which saw 276 impaired-driving related offences.

The offences include 153 criminal code charges, such as driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeding .08, impaired driving or refusing a breath test, as well as 68 roadside suspensions, which involve experienced drivers with a BAC between .04 and .08.

Despite the lower numbers, SGI says there is a lot of room for improvement.

And impaired driving isn't the only thing getting people pulled over. SGI said January saw 500 distracted driving offences — over 400 of which were due to cellphone use — as well as 300 seatbelt or car seat offences and 4,600 speeding/aggressive driving offences.

Corrections

  • Due to inaccurate information provided by SGI, incorrect numbers were reported in an earlier version of this story. The earlier version stated there were 253 impaired-driving related offences across the province in January 2018. There were, in fact, 221.
    Feb 23, 2018 1:51 PM CT