OPP festive R.I.D.E program begins
Posted Nov 27, 2011 01:56:33 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
This is the first full weekend of the Ottawa Police, together with Ontario Provincial Police’s festive R.I.D.E program.
The effort to reduce impaired driving runs through January 1st.
During last year’s campaign, OPP officers laid 308 impaired driving charges and issued 903 warnings.
Police say impaired driving continues to be the leading cause of criminal death in Canada.
As of mid-November, 40 people have died in alcohol-related collisions on OPP-patrolled roads and highways this year.
Greg Thomson of MADD Ottawa launched it’s Red Ribbon campaign Wednesday and says four people every day in Canada die from impaired driving. 190 are injured daily in drunk driving crashes.
Thomson points out Ottawa’s death toll from impaired driving is higher, per capita, than Toronto’s.
He feels the message is not getting through and perhaps Canada should take a page out of Australia’s playbook which has seen a drastic drop in deaths following the release of it’s extremely graphic drunk driving ad campaign.
