Collisions involving impaired drivers drop in 2025, but impaired driving on the rise

Coming off of a busy holiday season full of RIDE programs, new data from the Ottawa Police Service shows cracking down on impaired driving may be working.

Preliminary year-end data from 2025 shows that while the total number of collisions increased four per cent from 2024, the number of those involving impaired drivers dropped from 218 to 193.

But collisions don’t always tell the whole story. Police previously said that 854 people were charged with impaired driving in 2025 and 837 the year prior.

While the proportion of collisions involving alcohol and drugs may be decreasing, those collisions appear to be more severe.

There were a total of 23 fatal collisions in 2025, up from 18 in 2024. There were an additional 1,320 non-fatal injuries last year, also up from the year prior.

The police service says cracking down on impaired driving remains one of its top priorities.

“Too often, people who drink or get high think they are okay to drive because they only feel ‘buzzed’,” the force says on its website. “You don’t have to be falling-down drunk to be a danger behind the wheel. Driving while being buzzed by drugs or alcohol can lead to devastating consequences.”