Thunder Bay police charge 31 impaired drivers during Festive RIDE program

Thunder Bay police say they're just "scratching the surface" when it comes to charging impaired drivers on roadways in the northwestern Ontario city.

Police on Wednesday said that in all of 2022, they charged 204 impaired drivers, with 31 of those charges coming during the annual Festive RIDE campaign (of those, 31, four were impaired by drugs and the rest alcohol).

The 2022 numbers mark a decrease from 2021, when 211 impaired drivers were charged.

"It's great that the numbers are going down," Acting Traffic Sgt. Sal Carchidi said. "I truly believe that some people have gotten the message and are choosing not to drink and drive.

"The downside to that is we know we're only scratching the surface with our impaired driving arrests," he said. "There's a lot of drivers going undetected and still driving while impaired."

Ontario Provincial Police charged a similar number of impaired drivers in the Thunder Bay, Shabaqua, and Armstrong areas during the Festive RIDE campaign.

Provincial Const. Marc Nielsen said 36 impaired drivers were charged and three warn-range licence suspensions were issued during the holidays.

"It's certainly concerning, because when you get up to highway speeds, faster speeds, with weather conditions that we're currently dealing with winter time-wise, reaction time, stopping time of your vehicle is a lot longer, especially when going those highway speeds," Nielsen said. "Driving impaired by drugs or alcohol, you believe that perhaps your ability is increased when it's not. It's actually a lot slower than you think."

An OPP spokesperson told CBC News the provincial service had charged 997 impaired drivers in the northwest region from Jan. 1 to Dec. 8, 2022.