Saskatoon, Saskatchewan — “Too many people are driving impaired this summer,” wrote Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) upon the release of its latest Traffic Safety Spotlight this week.
“While not an all-time record high, this is the most impaired driving offences in a single month so far this year.”
July’s report shows that more than 497 impaired drivers were stopped during that period, 292 of whom were charged with criminal code offences as a result of their impairment.
SGI Media Relations Manager, Tyler McMurchy, explains that “…the overall number of collisions caused by impaired driving is not a large proportion of the total number of collisions we see.”
“However, the issue is that those impaired driving collisions are, on average, more serious, and a higher proportion of them injure or kill people,” says McMurchy.
Although McMurchy clarifies that “…the number of people caught in a given month won’t always directly correspond with an increase in collisions, but it does show that there were people making the decision to drive impaired.”
With all of this being said, drunk or impaired driving is not as prevalent as in the past.
“Overall, impaired driving collisions – and the injuries and deaths that result—has been trending downward over the past decade,” says McMurchy.
This monthly safety spotlight is established through the partnership of SGI and Saskatchewan police for the benefit of education and enforcement of traffic safety.
August’s report will focus on distracted driving. Saskatchewan police reported 581 distracted driving offences in July, 454 of those offences being related to the use of cell phones behind the wheel.
One in 5 crashes are caused because of distracted driving, a leading cause of injury and death on Saskatchewan roads.
Other findings include 5,411 tickets issued for speeding or aggressive driving and 375 tickets issued for not wearing a seat belt or having a child improperly restrained while driving.
